Rabat – Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) arrested on Saturday an engineering student with alleged ties to ISIS in Mohammedia, a city located between Casablanca and Rabat.
According to a statement from the BCIJ, the suspect “was planning a terrorism plot to undermine the stability of the country by using an explosive belt.”
The statement added that BCIJ officials seized computers, two hard disks, several suspicious CDs and two mobile phones.
During the operation the BCIJ also seized suspicious materials, including diving equipment, a wooden stick, electrical cables, a voltmeter, and an adhesive tape.
Authorities put the suspects in custody for further investigations to identify other potential suspects with links to terror groups.
The operation followed a similar arrest in September in which 12 suspects with alleged ties to criminal and terror networks in Casablanca and Tangier were arrested.
BCIJ members have carried out several operations that resulted in the dismantling of terror cells with links to ISIS.
In July, BCIJ officials arrested seven pro-ISIS extremists operating in central Morocco, near Agadir and Marrakech.
During the same month, BCIJ arrested four suspects in four Moroccan cities: Casablanca, Nador, Tangier, and Tiznit.
Ever since the Marrakech terror attack in 2011, Morocco has modernized and upgraded its security system to fight radicalization and organized crime.
