The man with the long hair looked a little emaciated. 58 kilograms were distributed over a height of 1.72 meters. The photo of the Swiss Daniel D. showed the frustrated look of an imprisoned fighter of the terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS). And yet, according to FOCUS Online information, interrogation specialists from the US authorities set out in the summer of 2019 to interrogate the Swissl extremist in a Syrian prison camp of Kurdish militants.Daniel D., fighting name Abu Mariyam, born 26 years ago in Geneva, was on the American list. The trained construction worker was temporarily part of the unit for IS operations abroad, the so-called “ExOPs group”. His best friend, with whom he left Switzerland five years ago, even became one of the leaders of the terrorist unit.
According to a report by the US Federal Police FBI, D. listed the members of the command level in detail, described planned operations by IS fighters who were said to have traveled to a bomb maker in Germany four years ago and then wreaked havoc in Canada. But nothing came of the project.
According to the Swiss Islamists, plans were also made to blow up oil tanks in Basel later. In December 2018, according to the informant, an eleven-strong troop set out for Turkey. According to the information, the cell wanted to infiltrate from there under the refugee status to Germany in order to blow up a subway here. The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) took the statements so seriously that the authority initiated a hazard prevention process under the code name “Reuse” last year.
North Rhine-Westphalia state security interpreted the statements of the Swiss IS fighter as evidence that “the sheikhs” of the pushed back IS troops called in 2019 to strike back massively on the old continent. According to notes from the Düsseldorf Public Prosecutor’s Office, the IS command level at “sleeper cells (…) for the territorial losses suffered in Syria and Iraq (…) ordered attacks in Western Europe.”
And so the prosecutors made references to a terrorist cell of Tajik refugees who were arrested mainly in North Rhine-Westphalia at the end of April. It is about murder plans against a Neuss critic of Islam and an Albanian businessman. Two pistols were also seized. When the investigators arrested the alleged head of the group in Wuppertal in March 2019, the so-called Takim cell continued its “holy war” unimpressed.
The initially seven-member force is said to have planned attacks on the US Air Force bases Spangdahlem (Rhineland-Palatinate) and Geilenkirchen (Heinsberg district) in particular. The group is also said to have targeted sporting events.
The methods of attack reminded the Düsseldorf state protectors strikingly of those described by the Swiss IS-man Daniel D. through his ExOps troops: The special unit had tested in Syria with explosive belts and bombs of its own design, with poison attacks, chemical artillery shells and drones that were supposed to drop ammunition.
The initially seven-member force is said to have planned attacks on the US Air Force bases Spangdahlem (Rhineland-Palatinate) and Geilenkirchen (Heinsberg district) in particular. The group is also said to have targeted sporting events.
The methods of attack reminded the Düsseldorf state security forces strikingly of those described by the Swiss IS-man Daniel D. on behalf of his ExOps troops: The special unit had tested in Syria with explosive belts and bombs of its own design, with poison attacks, chemical artillery shells and drones that were supposed to drop ammunition.
The NRW state security drew parallels to their terrorist proceedings. In the course of the investigation in this country, instructions on bombing with drones were found among the Tajik suspects in North Rhine-Westphalia. Telegram also downloaded the “Kitchen Book for Mujahideen” in order to manufacture explosive devices.
At the same time, the terror investigators gradually discovered that members of the group were inquiring about courses on paragliding or flying on the Tegernsee or in Bitburg on the Internet. The city in the Eifel is close to the US base Geilenkirchen, from which the large air space reconnaissance aircraft “Awacs”, which were also active in Syria, Iraq and Jordan, start.In March 2020, a report by a Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) liaison officer from Moscow caused additional alarm at the North Rhine Westphalian security authorities: In it she described new findings about IS attack plans. For example, the emirs of the self-appointed Caliphate Brigades “called on the assassins to carry out targeted attacks with motor vehicles, as has just happened in Berlin. Furthermore, the “holy warriors” sent out were to carry out gas explosions in specially rented apartments”. The attacks were to result in as many victims as possible.
For a long time, state security officials had ignored Tajik extremists. There were virtually no indications of Islamist activities from immigrant communities in the post-communist Central Asian state. Between 2011 and 2017, members of the terrorist cell Takim had come to Germany and applied for asylum.
At the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF), they claimed to be victims of persecution by the Tajik secret service. Some openly admitted that they were radical Islamic Salafists who had been persecuted. The German authorities were not suspicious, but granted a temporary residence status.It was not until the turn of the year 2018/2019 that the NRW counter-terrorism noticed that a highly dangerous force had formed from the Tajik community. The participants talked in coded phone calls about football and the desire to become a martyr. Investigators later evaluated the conversation about Real Madrid, the royal, as a synonym for IS. In their opinion, the word “playing football” also stood for attacks.
Soon the authorities intercepted telegram chats with a fighter from Syria. The man, code name “Abu Fatima”, encouraged the Takim group to “do something” in Germany. The NRW authorities now believe to have identified the originator: It is Arsenic M. from the Caucasian republic of Dagestan. He is regarded as one of the planners of the truck attack by an IS supporter in Stockholm City, which left five dead and 14 injured in April 2017.
Little by little, the prosecutors in Düsseldorf and the state security service in Mönchengladbach uncovered a highly effective network that maintained close contacts with Caucasian terrorists in Europe far beyond North Rhine-Westphalia.
On September 11, 2019, they overheard an explosive phone call: One of the heads of the Takim unit in North Rhine-Westphalia called a combatant in Austria. The 24-year-old Chechen Magomed D. was serving a sentence in the Linz prison because he was caught trying to leave Syria and was convicted. They talked about the condition of the Amir (leader), who was also incarcerated in the Alpine republic. How Magomed D. got hold of the cell phone in prison is still unclear. Two months later, the Austrian security authorities exposed a group of Chechens who are said to have planned attacks on the Christmas market on Vienna’s Stephansplatz and in Germany. It is currently not clear whether the NRW cell was involved in such projects.
The Porsche group wanted to dismantle a paint shop in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen over the turn of the year 2019/2020. Once again one of the heads of the Takim group pulled the strings: a relative carried out the work there as a subcontractor. The terror chief organized about 60 workers to collect wages for an “imprisoned brother”. During the observation of the construction site, the terror investigators from the Rhine discovered, according to a note, “numerous Chechens from France, about whom a wide range of state security-relevant findings are available at home and abroad”.The local security forces observed the activities of the Takim cell for over a year before the federal prosecutor took over the case. When the authorities wanted to deport two Tajik jihadists to their homeland in autumn 2019, the troops got into a hectic rush. On the one hand, they sought refuge with “French brothers”, and on the other hand they had to obtain false passports through relevant channels. Ultimately, the responsible government agencies were faster. The two terrorist suspects had to leave the country and fell into the hands of Tajik security authorities.A state that changed soon. According to the investigations, the Takim cell succeeded in freeing its two accomplices through middlemen in exchange for bribes. One of them made his way back to North Rhine-Westphalia. In late April, the jihadist was arrested in Albania. After an extradition request, he arrived in Frankfurt/Main on August 3. Officials of the Düsseldorf police headquarters arrested him. Since then he has been held in custody on remand.
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