MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Alleged Islamist terrorist arrested in Argentina

“We dismantled a network of hate and terror that was trying to infiltrate our society,” Bullrich stressed

Argentine authorities announced Tuesday the arrest of an Islamist individual who was allegedly planning an imminent attack on home soil. “The plan was very advanced, in its last stage...,” Security Minister Patricia Bullrich explained. The suspect posed “a concrete threat to national security,” she also pointed out. “We thwarted his plans before he could cause any harm,” she insisted.

The detention came after nine months “of exhaustive investigation” resulting “in a historic operation” of simultaneous raids by the Coast Guard Prefectura (Naval Argentina) in the city of General Roca, in the province of Río Negro. “We are demonstrating to the world that we are determined to give this battle against these global threats,” Bullrich stressed.

The suspect was identified as David Nazareno Ávila -alias “Naza”-, aged 24, who had been part of the Argentine Army as a volunteer. According to Bullrich, the alleged terrorist is linked to the Islamic State Daesh group (ISIS) and “belonged to a network of hatred and global destruction.”

“He represented a concrete threat against national security. The investigation meant direct confessions obtained by our digital undercover agent,” Bullrich also noted.

In March last year, the Specialized Prosecution Unit for Organized Crime (UFECO) became aware that David Nazareno Avila would carry out jihadist dissemination and propaganda activities on behalf of ISIS using Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Telegram, and X.

With this information, surveillance and wiretapping were initiated and a digital undercover agent was appointed to the case. It was thus detected that Avila, who was working in a courier company next to a Jewish community company, was linked to different groups connected to ISIS.

After raiding several homes linked to the suspect, his cell phone was seized. Images and conversations with terrorist groups were found there. In one of the messages sent last October, Avila “requested instructions for the assembly of explosive bombs”.

“The plan was at a very advanced stage. What terrorists call entrustment, to have a guide, which means the last stage to carry out an attack,” Bullrich said. “His end was the characterization of the national government as Zionist and that he should pay for that. Not coincidentally, he worked in a courier company. That allowed him to move around to choose targets,” she added.

“This extremist used Telegram, Tik-Tok, Instagram, to spread hate ideology and to try to recruit young Argentines to be cannon fodder for terrorist organizations,” She added that “jihadist propaganda, manuals for the manufacture of explosives, anti-Semitic messages and connections with international radicalization networks” were found.

Bullrich also reckoned that the FBI helped in the investigation. Avila is now held at the Federal Court premises in Campana -in the province of Buenos Aires- where he was transferred by the PNA elite Albatros Group for questioning.

“We dismantled a network of hate and terror that was trying to infiltrate our society,” Bullrich also pointed out.