Investigators in Milan announced that 19 people had been arrested in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Turkey in dawn operations involving hundreds of police officers to dismantle an armed criminal gang that was allegedly plotting terrorist attacks.
The suspects include the gang’s allegedly boss, Baris Boyun, a 39-year-old Turkish national of Kurdish origin and one of Ankara’s most wanted men.
The suspects face charges that include murder, terrorist attacks and being in an armed group for terrorist purposes.
Boyun was taken in custody from an apartment in the city of Viterbo, north of Rome, where he was under house arrest after being detained in Rimini in August 2022 under an international warrant issued by the Turkish authorities regarding allegations including murder, criminal association and arms felonies.
Boyun rejected the allegations and staged a successful legal battle in the Italian courts against his extradition, saying he was being persecuted for his Kurdish origins.
According to the warrant for Wednesday’s operations, Boyun had continued to lead a criminal network active in many parts of Europe from a residence in Crotone where he had been under house arrest.
Among other things, he was the alleged brains behind a planned attack in March on a Turkish aluminum factory involving suicide bombers that was thwarted thanks to information exchanged by Italian and Turkish police.
The warrant said that, in a wiretapped conversation, Boyun had boasted that “all of Turkey” would talk about what he had in store.
In a wiretap from January 16, Boyun allegedly said that he had told the “upper hierarchy of the PKK” that “we don’t accept an organization like this and we will found a new organization, starting a new revolution”.
