CANADA’S arrest of two men on terrorism charges on April 22nd was a low-key affair compared with the manhunt for the Boston bombers the previous week. Chiheb Esseghaier (pictured), 30, was seized by police in a fast-food restaurant in Montreal, while Raed Jaser, 35, was taken from the Toronto removal company where he worked. No shots were fired. Both men deny wrongdoing. But Project Smooth, as the operation was called by Canada’s police, is already being touted as a success for the security services of Canada and the United States, which helped with the case. An alleged plot to derail a passenger train was averted. What’s more, the operation was carried out with the help and support of Canada’s Muslims.

In recent years security services in Canada have become more concerned about domestic terrorism but have had a harder time detecting it. The threat has evolved from one of large attacks directed from abroad—such as the bombing of an Air India flight from Montreal to London in 1985, in which 329 people died—into smaller-scale acts by individuals who remain under the police radar. Civilian sources are therefore more important than ever.

After the September 11th attacks Canadian security services devoted time to improving relations with local Muslims. What progress they made fell apart when Maher Arar, a Canadian born in Syria, was arrested in the United States on the basis of inaccurate information provided by the Canadian police. He was then flown to Syria, where he was tortured. “That shattered any trust we had,” says Hussein Hamdani, who sits on a committee that advises the federal government on security.

The police redoubled their efforts after the arrest in 2006 of 18 people in Toronto, 11 of whom were later sentenced for plotting to blow up landmarks and behead the prime minister. The policy paid off when a tip from a Toronto imam about the worrying behaviour of one of his congregation in 2011 helped set Project Smooth in motion. Many Muslim leaders attended the police press conference on April 22nd to show their support.

Much remains unclear about the alleged plot. The police refused to divulge the citizenship of the two except to say they were not Canadians. They would not say which train route was targeted, although reports suggested it was the train from Toronto to New York. Police said the men had received direction from al-Qaeda elements in Iran, although not support from the Iranian government.

The Canadian government trumpeted the arrests as proof of its toughness on terrorism. It didn’t hurt that they came on a day when the House of Commons was debating a bill to renew lapsed terrorism laws and create an offence of travelling abroad to commit terrorism. This new law is supposed to deal with the terrorists’ changing tactics. A Canadian citizen is suspected of detonating a bus bomb in Bulgaria last year. Two more were involved in an attack on a gas plant in Algeria in January. A fourth is thought to have taken part in an attack in Somalia this month that left more than 30 dead. Despite their recent apparent success, the security services have plenty to be vigilant about.