MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine authorities arrest three people suspected of terrorism

One of the suspects of Syrian nationality also had a Colombian and a Venezuelan passport

Argentine authorities arrested three men in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA) Wednesday. The suspects were believed to be linked to plans to stage terrorist attacks in the country, it was explained.

The three individuals of Syrian and Lebanese origin planned to meet in the City of Buenos Aires with the alleged intention of coordinating terrorist actions, investigators found. A suspicious international shipment from Yemen weighing 35 kilograms was to be delivered to the address where one of the suspects would be staying, which triggered many alarms amid the XV Pan-American Maccabees Games held in Buenos Aires from Dec. 28 to Jan. 4 bringing together some 4,200 athletes from 22 delegations within the international Jewish community.

One of the suspects traveling from Colombia was arrested upon arrival at Jorge Newbery Airport. Another individual was captured in downtown Buenos Aires and the third was taken into custody from the town of Avellaneda in the province of Buenos Aires bordering the Argentine capital.

According to local media, one of the detainees had Syrian nationality although he had Venezuelan and Colombian passports in his name. A Syrian flag was found among his belongings.

In October 2023, the Iraqi national Masood Yousif Simo Faeedi was arrested for his “suspicious” behavior in front of the Israeli embassy and with a false identification. He has been charged with forgery of documents and remanded. He was “talking on a cell phone in a language that the police custody stationed at the embassy could not determine and specifically observing the building where the embassy is located.” When halted by law enforcement he produced fake identification papers leading to his arrest.

Simo Faeedi had an Iraqi passport and an Argentine national identity card. At the time of his arrest, he told the police that he was a politically persecuted person, that he was applying for refugee status with the rest of his family, and that at that moment he was in the downtown area looking for a currency exchange parlor.

The 24-year-old had also been arrested in August 2022 at the Ezeiza International Airport with a false passport when he was trying to leave the country.