- Title: ITALY: POLICE ARREST ANARCHISTS BELEIVED LINKED TO PARCEL BOMB ATTACKS.
- Date: 26th July 2004
- Summary: (U4) ROME, ITALY (JULY 27, 2004)(REUTERS) 1. LV/GV/CU: POLICE SPEAKING AT PRESS CONFERENCE (3 SHOTS) 0.11 2. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) LIEUTENANT COLONEL SALVATORE LUONGO, HEAD OF ROME AREA, PART OF THE INVESTIGATION, SAYING: "The individuals who have been under investigation for over a year stand at over one hundred. Those formally under investigatio
- Embargoed: 10th August 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ROME, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Reuters ID: LVA5WRVZW0I4V3H0CPF1C1XI2PVC
- Story Text: Police have arrested at least four people in a
nationwide swoop against anarchists who are believed to be
linked to a spate of parcel bomb attacks.
Police said on Monday (July 27, 2004) the operation,
which was still in progress, involved several cities in
central and northern Italy. A number of homes were still being
searched.
Carabinieri military police, who were conducting the
investigation in conjunction with the regular police force,
told journalists they had arrested two individuals. The
regular police had arrested another two individuals.
The individuals who have been under investigation for
over a year stand at over 100. There are 34 people formally
under investigation and two under arrest, Lieutenant
Colonel Salvatore Luongo, involved in the investigation,
told journalists at a press conference.
Italy launched a task force comprising anti-terrorism
experts from the EU police agency Europol and six European
countries to probe anarchist movements in several countries
which include France and Spain.
Police said the investigation began shortly after a
bomb exploded last year at a Spanish language institute in
Rome in June 2003. The small bomb went off outside the
front entrance to the Cervantes Institute but no-one was
injured.
"We consider them extremely dangerous individuals
mainly because, as opposed to more structured organisation
like the Red Brigades, these individuals act in various
small groups of four to five people. They are connected to
other groups which are compartmentalised even if, at the
same time, they are connected to many other groups acting
in the national territory," said Luongo.
The individuals have also been blamed for a number of
parcel bombs sent to Italian officials and European
politicians in December and this year.
One of the bombs was sent to European Commission
President Romano Prodi at his home in the northern city of
Bologna. The bombs did not cause any serious injuries.
Carabinieri police said that this fringe of anarchists
was often a minor but disruptive presence at the many
nationwide demonstrations including those against
globalisation and the war in Iraq.
"We are no longer in the area of antagonism but
extreme antagonism which borders on anarchism," said Luongo.
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