Police, coordinated by the Milan Juvenile Prosecutor's Office, arrested and took to prison a 16-year-old Italian boy of foreign origin residing in the Como area on charges of "participation in an association for the purpose of international terrorism" and "propaganda and incitement to crime based on racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination."
The arrest was carried out in the Grosseto area, where the young man was vacationing with his family. On the boy's online profile, officers found "clear references to the Islamic State" and several chats where he shared "jihadist, neo-Nazi, and anti-Semitic content."
The investigation began with a tip from the AISI (Italian National Institute of Social Security) regarding a user registered on an instant messaging platform who, through various profiles, was spreading jihadist and pro-ISIS propaganda. Initial investigations have linked all profiles to the young suspect, who has no criminal record and had never previously been identified in radical circles.
The police then traced a profile used by the minor with clear references to the Islamic State and several chats where he shared jihadist, neo-Nazi, and anti-Semitic content. Furthermore, they noted frequent use of VPNs and other data obfuscation tools, tools through which the suspect accessed a Daesh propaganda website.
The Milan DIGOS (Italian Special Operations Division) then executed a personal and computer search warrant against the young man. Specifically, in addition to a large quantity of digital files on the Islamic State translated into various languages, propaganda videos and images of training sessions, executions, anasheed, and white supremacist and neo-Nazi content, several conversations emerged in which the suspect explicitly expressed his support for ISIS , stating that he had previously collaborated in the production of propaganda for the terrorist organization.
A video produced in Russian, a language perfectly understandable to the suspect, bearing the logo of the Islamic State and relating to the manufacture of an improvised explosive device using easily available materials, was also found.
