Five arrested in Cairns over alleged plan to join IS

Cairns: Notorious Islamic preacher Musa Cerantonio is among five men arrested in Cairns over an alleged plan to take a small boat to Indonesia and join the Islamic State (IS) terror group. Shayden Thorne, the brother of another hardline Islamist, Junaid Thorne, was also arrested. Police arrested the men yesterday as they were towing a boat towards Cape York, in far north Queensland. They are being held on suspicion of foreign incursion offences. Police would not disclose how long ago the men travelled from Melbourne to northern Australia, but believe they were intending to travel through Indonesia and the Philippines to Syria. AFP deputy commissioner Neil Gaughan said the men, aged from 21 to 33 years old, were “very committed” to leave the country after previously having their passports cancelled.

“The fact that they’d gone all the way from Melbourne, all the way to far North Queensland, indicates that these people were extremely committed in ... their attempt to leave the country,” he said. ABC