Canadian police raid homes after arresting 10 would-be jihadists at Montreal airport

[JihadiJohn]

Canadian federal police raid homes after arresting 10 would-be jihadists at Montreal airport

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 27 May, 2015, 10:28pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 27 May, 2015, 10:28pm

Agence France-Presse in Ottawa

A home in St-Leonard, Quebec, was searched on Tuesday morning, linked to a police investigation into youth suspected of trying to go overseas to join jihadists. Photo: Radio-Canada

Canadian federal police have raided homes in the Montreal area linked by local media to suspected jihadists who had been detained for allegedly seeking to join Islamic State militants.

Searches were conducted around the city and had concluded by late afternoon, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Erique Gasse said. He declined to offer details of the RCMP's "ongoing investigation".

Local television on Tuesday showed officers hauling boxes out of the suspects' homes in three Montreal suburbs.

The 10 would-be jihadists believed to be the focus of the raids were arrested on the weekend of May 16 at the Montreal airport as they waited to board a flight to Turkey, a popular crossing point into neighbouring Syria.

Image posted on a militant website January 14, 2014, shows fighters from al-Qaida linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) marching through Raqqa, Syria. Photo: AP

There, the young men aged 15 to 18 years had hoped to join the Islamic State group, according to a counterterrorism task force.

Their passports were seized but the youths were released after being questioned along with their parents, according to the RCMP-led Integrated National Security Enforcement Team. The police searches came as the Canadian Senate held hearings on new anti-terror measures that Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney testified on Monday would have allowed federal police to hold the 10 suspects.

The new legislation, when it comes into force in June, will dramatically expand the powers and reach of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, allowing it to actively thwart terror plots and operate overseas.