After the anti-terrorist operation in Castrop-Rauxel, North Rhine-Westphalian Interior Minister Herbert Reul criticized politicians’ hesitation in obtaining information online. “The important thing is that you know early on who is planning what,” said the CDU politician on Monday in the ARD “Morgenmagazin”. He doesn’t understand why Germany is having such a hard time here and not using the opportunities that are available.
The federal states have very different legal conditions as to how they can intercept and examine which information on the Internet. “We are very reserved in Germany,” said the minister. International cooperation among the security authorities, on the other hand, works so well that information is transmitted very quickly. The police were able to make all the preparations “from one day to the next” and arrest the young men.
On the night of Sunday, two brothers between the ages of 32 and 25 were arrested in Castrop-Rauxel in North Rhine-Westphalia. The two Iranians are said to have tried to obtain poison for an Islamist-motivated attack. According to the Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office, the corresponding toxins cyanide and ricin were not found during a search of the 32-year-old’s apartment.
Arrest warrants were issued for the two brothers on Sunday evening. It was initially unclear how concretely the possible attack plans had progressed and what a possible target would have been. The German investigators had become active because of a tip from colleagues from the USA.
