ROME, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- A man was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of plotting to carry out a terrorist attack by poisoning the public water supply in Italy, Italian police said and local media reported.
"A man was arrested...for planning an attack in a Sardinia town," state police tweeted, adding that the operation was carried out by the DIGOS division which deals with terrorism and organized crime.
The 38-year-old man was taken into custody in a vast operation that cordoned off parts of the town of Macomer on the island region of Sardinia, RAI News 24 public broadcaster reported, showing footage of the man being arrested.
"The person was arrested on charges of international terrorist association," National Anti-Mafia and Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor Federico Cafiero de Raho told a press conference, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The charge is that the man "adhered to" the Islamic State(IS), said De Raho, adding, "The subject was planning an attack using ricin (toxic protein that comes from the seeds of the castor oil plant) and anthrax (deadly bacteria)".
The investigation began in September when Italian police got a tip after the suspect's cousin was arrested in Lebanon, ANSA cited De Raho as saying.
The suspect came from a refugee camp in Lebanon, had been living in Macomer for several years with his Moroccan wife and their four children, and had a legal residency permit in Italy, according to ANSA.
The suspect's children all went to school, and neighbors described him as a mild-mannered person, ANSA reported.
Italy's strategy of surveillance combined with its unusual policy of deporting suspected terrorists before they get a chance to act has been credited with preventing deadly attacks such as those that have occurred in other European countries.
The total number of such deportations since January 2015 has risen to 349 in November, of which 112 were carried out in 2018, the interior ministry said in a statement.
