BERLIN — Late Saturday night, specialized police descended on a calm commercial strip in the town of Castrop-Rauxel, in western Germany.
They entered the apartment they had targeted wearing full chemical protective gear in an effort to stop a planned poison attack that, according to news media reports, had been flagged by the intelligence service of an allied country.
“We had a serious tip that led the police to intervene that very night,” Herbert Reul, North Rhine-Westphalia’s interior minister in charge of state security, told DPA, the German wire service, on Sunday.
In the raid that followed, the police arrested a 32-year-old Iranian citizen who the authorities believe was preparing the attack, and who the police said was suspected of having procured cyanide and ricin in an effort “to commit an Islamist-motivated attack.” Another man who was in the apartment at the time was also detained.
At least one of the suspects was led away wearing boxer shorts, according to German news reports, suggesting that he had been in bed at the time. Evidence was collected in big blue plastic tubs and brought to a local lab for analysis.
“The accused is suspected of having prepared a serious act of violence that endangers the state,” the police said in a statement.
It remains unclear how far along the suspect’s plans were, the authorities say. The fact that the federal prosecutor is investigating whether the accused was preparing “for seditious acts of violence,” a crime that could lead to 10 years in jail, suggests the authorities are taking the case very seriously.
In 2018, a Tunisian man was arrested in Cologne after buying castor bean seeds, which contain ricin, on the internet. The authorities found substantial amounts of ricin in his apartment.
Matt Stevens contributed reporting from Seoul.
