Top French anti-terrorism judge Marc Trevidic has repeatedly warned about the threat posed by recruitment of European fighters to the Syrian Islamist factions in that nations civil war. Today he revealed a problem much worse than anyone imagined.

Back in January, French President Francois Hollande shocked many with the claim of 700 French fighters going to Syria, a stark increase over prior estimates. Trevidic today said the number could be as many as 2,000.

“There was an explosion when that first generation came home,” Trevidic warned, saying that they had fueled a huge recruitment drive, with boys as young as 15 trying to leave for Syria, and female recruits leaving to marry jihadist fighters.

Trevidic said that there was no imminent threat of attacks on France from the jihadists, but that this was inevitable as they “grow discouraged at the idea of an Islamic state ever being founded in Syria.”