By Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Gabriel Stargardter
RIO DE JANEIRO – Israel’s spy agency Mossad worked with Brazilian security services and other international agencies to foil an attack on Jews in Brazil planned by the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday.
Brazil’s Federal Police said in a statement they arrested two people, who they did not name, on terrorism charges in Sao Paulo. They also carried out search and seizure warrants in Sao Paulo, Brasilia, and Minas Gerais states.
Mossad thanked Brazilian security services for their role in helping to thwart the attack.
“The Brazilian security services, together with the Mossad and … additional international security and enforcement agencies, have foiled a terrorist attack in Brazil, which had been planned by the Hezbollah terrorist organization, directed and financed by the Iranian regime,” it said.
Mossad said the “terrorist cell … was operated by Hezbollah in order to carry out an attack on Israeli and Jewish targets in Brazil.”
Hezbollah, an Iran-backed group in Lebanon, could not immediately be reached for comment. Neither could the Iranian government.
Brazil has relatively little history of domestic extremism.
In 2017, eight Brazilian men with ties to Islamic State were jailed for planning attacks during the 2016 Rio Olympics after a tip-off from the U.S. FBI.
In 2021, the U.S. Treasury designated three men in Brazil as members of an al-Qaeda-affiliated network. U.S. officials also keep a close eye on the Triple Frontier region between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, which is home to a large Lebanese diaspora community and a base for smuggling outfits and other organized crime groups.
(Reuters)
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