Snatched – far Right radical ‘ready to bring terror to Euro 2016’
Frenchman’s huge haul of AK-47s, grenades and TNT
AN ‘ immigrant-hating’ radical who planned to bring carnage to the Euro 2016 football tournament in France has been caught with a terrifying arsenal of weapons.
Gregoire Moutaux, 25, was arrested in Ukraine after acquiring five Kalashnikov assault rifles, two anti-tank grenade launchers, 5,000 rounds of ammunition and 275lb of TNT explosives.
The Frenchman had packed the weapons into a white van and was heading towards war-torn Ukraine’s border with Poland when he was stopped by armed police.
The far-Right nationalist was ‘armed to the teeth and ready to strike’, according to a source close to the investigation.
Moutaux was believed to have been plotting at least 15 attacks and his arrest was announced yesterday as the England team arrived at their base in Chantilly ahead of the tournament’s kick- off on Friday. Around 500,000 British football fans alone are expected to attend games.
Video released by Ukraine’s SBU security service showed a man whose face was blurred out loading weapons into the back of a van before he was arrested on May 21.
A passenger is also seen being wrestled to the ground but no details on his identity have been released.
Moutaux remains in Ukraine, awaiting extradition, but it is feared that accomplices got away.
A security source said: ‘Moutaux had been under surveillance for at least five months, but not all of the men he was in contact with have been caught. The priority is of course to find them.’
Ukrainian intelligence chief Vasyl Hrytsak said the Frenchman’s tar- gets included bridges, motorways, a mosque and a synagogue. It was still unclear last night whether he had specific targets linked to the Euro 2016 tournament but Mr Hrytsak added: ‘ We were able to prevent 15 terrorist acts planned in France on the eve of and during the championship.’ French police maintain that there is no ‘ specific threat against any Euro 2016 site’ and a massive operation is under way involving 90,000 security forces. Moutaux, a cow inseminator, was said to be an Islamophobe and anti-Semite with links to far-Right groups. He often travelled to Ukraine as part of his job working for a farming co-operative but the country is also a ready source of arms and explosives.
The SBU also released pictures of Moutaux handling weapons.
When his home in the hamlet of Nant-le-Petit in eastern France was searched officers found 20 balaclavas as well chemicals for making explosives and neo-Nazi material.
A French police source claimed that Moutaux, who has no previous criminal record, was motivated by his perceived ‘hatred of his country being taken over by immigrants’ and could have ‘caused carnage’ if he had not been detected.
He allegedly planned to target ‘large crowds building up around Euro 2016’. There have long been fears that Islamic State terrorists are planning to strike at the tournament, targeting countries that have been involved in attacks in Syria.
Marseille commander Laurent Nunez said England’s opening match against Russia on Saturday night in the Mediterranean port city is ‘particularly high risk’.
Suggestions that the city will be attacked emerged on a computer belonging to Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the Isis death squad that hit Paris last November. France remains under a state of emergency.
The US last week warned its citizens of the risk of attacks.