Sweden’s security police arrested four people on suspicion of preparing Islamist terror attacks during an afternoon raid of a mosque in Stockholm County on Thursday.
Neighbors of the premises in Tyresö, south of the Swedish capital, reported explosions at around 2 p.m. as security police stormed the Islamic cultural association and detained four suspects.
On Thursday evening, Swedish authorities announced in a press release those being held were facing terrorist charges and were suspected of serious weapons offenses.
The public prosecutor’s office noted that the terror charges were associated with Islamist extremism and that authorities were exploring links to serious organized crime.
“There are individuals where we see connections to serious crime in Sweden and also international connections to the terrorist group IS,” said Fredrik Hultgren-Friberg, press spokesperson at the police security service, Säpo.
“What I can say is that we have known about these people for a long time and have made an effort against their plans to ward off a threat,” he added, refusing to elaborate on the particulars of the case.
Broadcaster SVT reported on Friday that two of the suspects were males in their 20s who had been monitored by the security services for some time. One, in particular, had been engaging in criminal activity since as young as 11 years of age and had regularly evaded the authorities.
SVT reported that a personal investigation into that particular suspect by the Prison Service in 2022 showed that he was primarily residing in Morocco.
Several other residential addresses were also raided by police in Tyresö on Thursday, in addition to a warehouse where several weapons were seized, understood to have been acquired to be used in planned terror attacks.
Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer expressed his concern over the incident and highlighted that the operation was evidence of the growing threat of Islamic terror across the country.
“This confirms that we have a high terrorist threat against Sweden and that the security police work intensively and continuously to prevent and prevent this type of serious crime,” he said.
“This shows the importance of continuing to work structured and persistently to combat both terrorism and violent extremism, as well as organized crime,” he added.