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French anti-terror sweep nets 25

French policemen arrest a woman as they take part in an early-morning raid aimed at suspects believed to have been involved in armed robberies to finance and further Islamic undertakings in the Paris suburb of Mantes-la-Jolie on Monday. PHOTO: AFP

French police detained 25 people suspected of raising funds for Islamic terrorists in a massive sweep on a suspected Islamic network allegedly centered around a militant released from prison last year.

Ouassini Cherifi, a French-Algerian convicted in 2002 of trafficking phony passports, was among the suspects rounded up in the Paris area and the Oise region north of the capital on Monday, police said. Police raided homes and Internet cafes.

Officials said that Cherifi met some members of the alleged network in prison. Cherifi was first arrested by France's Directorate for Territorial Surveillance counterterrorism agency in 2000 for trafficking phony French passports from Thailand that militants used to travel to the Pakistan-Afghanistan region and elsewhere.

The detainees -- French, Tunisian and Algerian nationals in their 20s and 30s -- were being questioned by anti-terrorist investigators who have four days before they must either release them or present them before a judge.

Some of those arrested are believed to have carried out armed robberies to raise funds for extremist groups and others may have been involved in money-laundering via high-street businesses, officials said.

Police said they confiscated a number of weapons and other equipment.

The suspects had been under surveillance for several weeks and were detained after evidence emerged that "violent actions" were being planned, investigators said.

One official close to the investigation said that the group could have been planning attacks on "highly symbolic targets" in France, but another said its aim was to "finance the cause notably for the carrying out of terrorist attacks abroad."

Police scientists were at the scene of the arrests to check for traces of chemical, bacteriological or nuclear material.

Some of those arrested are "known to the authorities for possession of false papers and taking part in robberies," and some have made journeys "in countries which are being watched by Western intelligence agencies," officials said.

Others may have been planning to travel to Iraq or recruit volunteer fighters to go there, they said.

The operation was carried out by members of the local intelligence service DST, acting under the instructions of France's leading anti-terrorist magistrate, Jean-Louis Bruguiere.

France stepped up its level of anti-terrorist alert after the July bombings in London, and government ministers have warned repeatedly that the country is seen as a target by Islamist militants.

Investigators take seriously a threat from the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC) -- a movement linked to al-Qaeda -- which in September said in a statement that France was its "enemy No. 1."

However officials said there was no known link between Monday's detainees and the GSPC.

Last month the French National Assembly approved an anti-terror law that will permit increased video surveillance, give police wider access to telephone and computer data, and extend initial det-ention periods in terrorist cases from four to six days.
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