Dutch authorities have arrested four teenagers with immigrant backgrounds in connection with an investigation into an alleged terrorist plot, with prosecutors accusing the suspects of preparing a terrorist attack while continuing to insist that no specific target or timing for an attack has yet been identified.
The latest arrest came on Friday evening, July 31st, when heavily armed officers from the police’s Special Intervention Service (DSI) detained an 18-year-old man at his home in Kesteren, Gelderland. Police searched the suspect’s home and seized electronic devices, including phones and laptops, for further examination.
The Kesteren arrest followed coordinated overnight raids last Wednesday in which three other suspects, a 16-year-old from Rotterdam, a 17-year-old from De Rijp in North Holland, and a 19-year-old from Eindhoven, were taken into custody. Authorities have not disclosed details about the alleged attack they believe the group was preparing.
“At this point in the investigation we have not identified a clear target or moment for an attack,” the prosecution service said in a statement. While prosecutors have not released detailed allegations against each suspect in the current investigation, several of those arrested have previous terrorism-related convictions.
19-year-old Mohammed K. from Eindhoven was sentenced in 2024, when he was 16 years old, to juvenile detention and community service after being convicted of preparing a terrorist attack and joining the terrorist organization ISIS. He was also later sentenced to 112 days in prison and banned from leaving the Netherlands after being convicted of plotting attacks on nightclubs and police stations in Belgium, although none of those planned attacks were ultimately carried out.
The 17-year-old suspect from De Rijp had also previously been convicted, receiving a juvenile detention sentence for participating in a terrorist organization.
The 16-year-old from Rotterdam was among a group of 14 people aged between 14 and 30 who were arrested in April last year on suspicion of inciting others to carry out terrorist attacks through the social media platform TikTok.
Separately, Dutch authorities also arrested a 20-year-old man in Bergen op Zoom on Thursday, July 30th, as part of a different terrorism investigation. Prosecutors have indicated that this case is unrelated to the alleged plot involving the four teenage suspects.
