From fantasy to real life: radicalisation in the making
It was six o’clock in the morning when an emergency operation woke the residents of a modern district of a Swiss city. Following leads provided by a foreign authority, fedpol stepped in to prevent an imminent jihadist attack.
In the early hours of the morning, fedpol, with the support of the local emergency services, broke down the door of an apartment in a modern neighbourhood. The suspect, who had been living there, had consulted detailed manuals on how to make a bomb. Several clues had put investigators on the trail of a potentially imminent jihadist attack. A foreign authority had passed on the initial information to fedpol.
The problem was that the suspect wasn’t at home. A plan B was needed to find the suspect: relatives were apparently living nearby. The police acted with discretion and speed, and, bingo, they found him and hauled him down to the police station.
Even though the audio was not very clear, the devices seized spoke for themselves. Investigators were able to gain a better idea of the suspect, Leotrim* when they analysed a private messaging app with around 1.5 million messages from exchanges he was involved in. It was like finding a needle in a haystack.
The meticulous analysis by the investigators revealed Leotrim’s radicalisation. The messages contained fantasies of murderous violence and a fascination with weapons. The suspect also expressed the desire to join the jihad several times.
Leotrim was also well connected offline: two jihadists known to fepdol were part of his immediate entourage, and he appeared interested in the ideologies they were spreading. Investigations show that he may have edited and distributed propaganda videos. Evidence against him included a photo of him posing as a mujahid with a knife in his hand. He also tried to gather information online to make his fantasies a reality; he had searched the web for instructions on building bombs and detonators. He was interested in the Islamic State (IS) and consulted documents explaining how to travel to a war zone. For fedpol, the evidence pointed to Leotrim posing a danger to Switzerland’s national security. As a preventive police measure, fedpol issued an expulsion order against him. Leotrim would then await judgment outside Switzerland.
«Security is a collective effort. By joining forces, we can fit the separate pieces of the puzzle together to form the whole picture. This is essential in the fight against terrorism.»
Fabio*, investigator, Terrorism Department
* Name changed