Eurojust and Europol have supported the competent authorities in Belgium, Croatia, Germany, Lithuania, Romania and Italy in an international operation against right-wing terrorism. During a joint action day, 5 suspects were apprehended and an additional 7 others interrogated across the different countries. Furthermore, data carriers and weapons were seized.
The suspects allegedly belong to a right-wing organisation that uses an online platform for terrorist-related activities, including the dissemination of violent extremist propaganda, the active recruitment of new members and for sharing manuals of 3D printed weapons. Some of the members of the organisation are believed to have written their own manifesto and to have access to weapons.
Despite of the young age of some of the suspects, indicators showed that there was an increased risk that some of them would take action soon.
The case was opened by Eurojust in July 2023 at the request of the Belgian authorities. Two coordination meetings were hosted by the Agency to facilitate judicial cooperation between the authorities of the countries involved the investigation. Eurojust supported the organisation of a coordination center on the action day on 9 November to enable real-time coordination of the actions.
Europol’s European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) has been supporting the case since July 2023 and brought together the investigators involved across Europe to establish a joint strategy and prepare for the final day of action. The information exchange facilitated by Europol was intense – over 350 SIENA messages were exchanged in the framework of this investigation. On the action day, a joint Operational Command Room was set up at Europol’s headquarters to coordinate the different actions taking place simultaneously across all the countries involved. In addition, Europol experts were deployed to Belgium, Italy, Lithuania and Croatia to facilitate the real-time information exchange between all the countries involved.
Participating authorities:
- Belgium: Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office, Investigative Judge Court of 1st Instance Antwerp; Federal Judicial Police Antwerp.
- Croatia: County State Attorney’s Office Zagreb; (Županijsko državno odvjetništvo u Zagrebu); Counter Terrorism Service of General Police Directorate
- Italy: Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Piedmont and Aosta Valley Juvenile Court and Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Salerno Juvenile Court; Polizia di Stato (National Police)
- Lithuania: Department for Investigation of Organized Crimes and Corruption of the Prosecutor General’s Office; Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau
- The Netherlands: National Public Prosecutors Office in Rotterdam; National Police
- Romania: National Police
Source – Europol