The Police Headquarters of Genoa and the Service for the Fight against Extremism and External Terrorism of the State Police carried out, from the early hours of this morning, a vast international operation to counter terrorism of a jihadist matrix with the execution of 14 custody orders precautionary measures in prison, ordered by the judicial authorities of the Ligurian capital, against Pakistani citizens accused of international terrorist association.
In the operation, conducted by the Digos of Genoa, the Digos of Reggio Emilia, Florence, Treviso and Brindisi are also involved and, in the execution of the measures abroad, for which the research has been carried out in Europe, the Comisarìa General de Informacìon of Spain and the French counter-terrorism with the coordination of the ECTC - European Counter Terrorism Center of Europol.
In addition to the capitals already affected by the execution of measures, the Digos of Genoa, Ferrara, Mantua, Savona and Macerata are involved in search activities.
Today's vast operation - coordinated by the Genoese Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism District Directorate which fully shared the results of the investigation - originates from information acquired in 2020 by the national intelligence sector about the presence, in Italy, of some foreigners included in the direct relational circuit of Hassan Zaheer Mahmood, the 27-year-old Pakistani who on 25 September 2020 in Paris, near the former headquarters of the satirical magazine CHARLIE HEBDO, seriously injured two people with a machete to "avenge" the republishing of the cartoons on the Prophet.
The investigation activity, undertaken by the Anti-terrorism Section of the DIGOS of Genoa on input and with the constant support of the Prevention Police Central Directorate - Service for the Fight against International Terrorism, had a turning point with the return to Italy, in the April last year, of the main suspect, the 25-year-old Pakistani TY, previously domiciled in Chiavari in the province of Genoa, where he had returned immediately after being readmitted from France, before moving to the province of Reggio Emilia. In the transalpine country he had been arrested two months earlier for carrying a large knife in a public place.
On his Facebook accounts, Tik Tok and on a You Tube channel, in fact, TY posted, on a daily basis, numerous videos in which he was often filmed wrapped in a black tunic and headdress while reciting texts praising violence or while, in the company of compatriots, in street or inside houses, he brandished machetes or large knives mimicking the "cut of the throat" together with the others.
The in-depth analyzes carried out on his social profiles made it possible to identify a large online publication of apologetic and violent videos and posts that constituted the starting point of a complex investigative process that revealed the existence and operation, in various provinces. in Italy and in some European countries, of a terrorist cell attributable to a larger group of young Pakistani, self-called the “Gabar Group”, all of whom are part of the direct contacts of the Charlie Hebdo attacker.
In addition to the demonstrations of closeness to the perpetrator of the Paris attack, also a member of the Gabar France Group, and full sharing of the reasons that led him to take action, the investigation made it possible to outline the ideological / confessional substratum of associates, continually striving to spread religious doctrines online based on violence and with a strong anti-Western vision, in full compliance with the line of preachers who incite the killing of those who "stain" themselves with blasphemy.
By extending the attention to TY's close relational network, it was therefore possible to elaborate and document the association hypothesis, given the proven, close links between the suspects, many of whom immortalized, just two months earlier, together with the author of the aforementioned attack in Paris in a photo taken under the Eiffel Tower to which the disturbing caption had been added: have a little patience… see you on the battlefields.
TY's role is clearly summarized in a passage of the provision that provides for the measure of pre-trial detention in prison and which describes how the suspect provided his participatory contribution to the terrorist association “…. promoting, starting from April 2021, the formation of a cell sitting and operating in Italy, through the recruitment of associates, the identification of a hideout (so-called Tana), the purchase of weapons, offering hospitality to associates, maintaining relationships and contacts with people at the top of the organization… .. ”.
The associative hypothesis found comfort not only through the continuous virtual and face-to-face contacts of the suspects but also thanks to the "capturing" of conversations between TY and this Peer ("teacher"), then fully identified in NR, a 33-year-old Pakistani currently detained in France, also among the recipients of today's extended international measures. In fact, in the dialogues recorded, the desire of both of them to create an Italian cell of the Gabar Group, recruiting associates, clearly emerged (“now we have to go to every city and find those 10 people I need .., the more we are, the better…. . "), Identifying a hideout (" let me work for 2 months, and then we find our "Tana" and let's make the Gabar group here in Italy ") and declaring the firm intention to buy weapons (" in 2 months I will start buying weapons ").
Furthermore, since the summer of 2021, the investigators documented multiple encounters between the suspects who periodically reached the Italian territory, in particular Fabbrico (RE), where TY settled and found work.
That our country was a privileged place for the logistical support of the Gabar Group is also demonstrated by the arrest in Lodi, carried out at the end of September 2021 by the DIGOS of Genoa and by the men of the Service for the Fight against Extremism and External Terrorism, of the 19 year old. Pakistani Ali Hamza, recipient of a European Arrest Warrant issued by the Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office of Paris because he is linked to the bomber of CHARLIE HEBDO, to the point of having been in charge of spreading the video claiming the attack once he was certain that the planning had gone successful.
The close ties between the suspects, the proclamations praising the violence, the total sharing of the ideological motivations of the Parisian attack, the constant contacts of TY with the aforementioned "Peer" ready to reach TY in Italy as soon as he was released from prison (" worry about the times when I come to Italy I will do anything "), with the declared intention of demonstrating how big the" Gabar Group was ", therefore provided the measure of the determination and danger of the suspects, representing one of the pillars of the precautionary needs, shared entirely by the Judicial Authority which considered the suspects to belong to an association, defined as the Gabar Group, which intends to commit acts of violence with the aim of terrorism.
Lastly, the investigative system was indirectly confirmed in a recent operation conducted in Spain by the Comisaria General de Informacion which, in February 2022, led to the arrest of 5 people, of which at least three in contact with today's suspects and all attributable to the Gabar Group.