Italy was on heightened terror alert over the Easter weekend, but managed to avoid any attacks by breaking up networks and arresting conspirators before they could carry out their plans. In particular, a network of associates of Anis Amri, the Berlin Christmas market mujahid, was broken up.

Many thanks to FouseSquawk for translating this TV report, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00 It’s almost dawn when the agents of DIGOS, using flashlights, after the Ministry of Interior sounds

00:04 the alarm, search shacks and residences in the provinces of Latina, Caserta and Naples,

00:07 improvised [unintelligible] points of support for those the investigators consider the supporters

00:11 of Anis Amri, the Berlin attacker who was killed at Sesto San Giovanni (Milan) 15 months ago.

00:15 It is his network which today ended up in the [unintelligible] of the police.

00:19 The investigation was born of the analysis tabulated from his cell phone,

00:23 and prompted five arrests and about twenty under investigation.

00:26 The activity that allowed us to reconstruct all the [unintelligible] that were here in Lazio,

00:31 in particular in the zone of PM as well as the capital,

00:34 is all connected to the person, who, as we know

00:38 was responsible for the attack in Berlin, Germany.

00:42 “We were successful in avoiding the phase of radicalization passing into terrorist activity

00:47 [unintelligible] Rome prosecutor. There are elements that lead us to think

00:50 not of an imminent attack, but of its preparation.

00:53 Three Tunisians were arrested at Caserta, one at Naples, and a Palestinian already in prison

00:56 in Rome for drugs, Abdel Salem Napulsi, 38, the most dangerous,

00:59 the only one who has direct connection to the Islamic State,

01:05 explain investigative sources. Accused of terrorism,

01:09 Napulsi shared propaganda and instructions for rocket launchers.

01:12 Prior to the arrest he had also tried to acquire a van

01:16 It is necessary to put (their) heads on the chopping block one before the other,

01:19 he said in a telephone interception referring to Westerners

01:22 And then the criticism of Tunisian women who don’t wear the full veil.

01:25 For the other four, the accusations are criminal association

01:29 for the purposes of falsifying immigration documents for illegal immigrants.

01:32 They were the ones who furnished false passports to migrants to reach other European countries.

01:36 Also, the same year he had requested from them counterfeit documents, a fake residence permit,

01:42 before moving to Germany in 2015 and going into action,

01:46 launching his truck into the Christmas market.

01:50 Three anti-terror operations in the course of 24 hours, and a threat which,

01:55 in the words of Interior Minister Minniti, has never been so high.

01:59 An Italian jihadi, born and raised in our country,

02:02 like Halili Elmahdi, a 23-year-old from the province of Turin,

02:05 who translated the instructions for preparing a truck bomb,

02:09 a jihadi who speaks our language, like the teacher, Abdel Rahman, an Italian citizen,

02:14 who in Foggia, [unintelligible] appreciation to children inviting them to martyrdom.

02:18 Those who study the propaganda of the caliphate have noticed a different tendency.

02:22 Previously the Daesh (ISIS) recruits had been invited to come fight in Syria and Iraq.

02:27 Now to strike in their respective countries.

02:30 Now with Rome in the crosshairs, the Ministry of Interior sounds the alarm,

02:34 explaining to Quotidiano and La Repubblica that in the last four to five months

02:38 ISIS propaganda has resumed in force, inviting

02:42 a look at the capital as a symbolic objective. In the official propaganda of the Islamic State,

02:46 there are 432 references to

02:50 Italy and Rome in particular.

02:54 Because of Rome, there are some passages of the Koran that presuppose

02:58 a final battle between the Islamic world and the West.

03:02 The security plan for Easter provides for increased video

03:05 for all crowded places and others where tourists and pilgrims are present.

03:10 Ten thousand agents will be spread across Rome.

03:13 Extra checks, buildings with video cameras and metal detectors, maximum surveillance