A Lebanese man was arrested in Sardinia Wednesday on suspicion of trying to plan a biological or chemical attack in the town of Macomer, said the police.
Police said 38-year-old Amin Alhaj Ahmad researched online the aflatoxin B1 carcinogen and the metomil pesticide. Information about the poisons and the ISIS group was found on his mobile phone.
“He was planning an attack with ricin and anthrax,” chief anti-terrorism prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho told reporters.
Amin, 38, who is a legal immigrant and married with three children, was arrested in Macomer by hooded police who forced him from his car as he left home.
Police said they had been tracking him since September following a tip-off from Lebanon, where his cousin had been arrested after trying to poison a water tank used by the army.
Police said there was no evidence Ahmad, who is Lebanese of Palestinian descent, actually managed to purchase the materials.
