Explosives found at airport
The employee of Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport, identified as Abderazak Besseghir, 27, a Frenchman of Algerian origin, was arrested on Saturday for possession of arms and explosives and has so far refused to talk. His father, two brothers and a friend have also since been detained.
Police were tipped off by a passenger who thought the baggage handler was acting suspiciously.
The airport, which handles around 100,000 passengers a day, was also where Richard Reid, a self-styled British disciple of Osama bin Laden, managed to board a Miami-bound plane a year ago with explosives hidden in the sole of his shoe.
Police made no comment on what Besseghir's intentions may have been. He has no prior criminal record and no known links to radical movements.
Police found an automatic pistol, a machine pistol, five cakes of plastic explosive, two detonators and a safety fuse in the boot of his car.
"There was everything required to put together an explosive a source close to the inquiry said.
The suspect had access to restricted areas of the airport close to aircraft, a police source said. "He had an official badge that allowed him to circulate freely and gave him access to restricted zones," the source said.
Besseghir is in custody at the headquarters of the criminal investigations division in central Paris while anti-terrorist police try to establish whether was involved with a terrorist group or in organised crime.
A search of his home in Bondy, a northeastern suburb, led to the arrest of four other people two brothers of Besseghir, his father and a family friend. Under French law, terrorism suspects may be held for four days before they are either placed under formal investigation a step short of being charged or released.
The arrests are the latest in a round-up of suspected Islamist militants in and around Paris.
The public has grown increasingly nervous since December 20, when the Interior Ministry said that at least one attack was being planned for the near future.
French police have arrested nine suspected militants since December 16, hoping to crack a network they say recruited young Muslims to train with bin Laden's al-Qaida group, which is blamed for the September 11 attacks on the US.
A raid on a suburban Paris flat used by some of the suspects unearthed possible bomb-making devices and false identity papers.
Islamic militants arrested in Paris over the last two weeks planned to attack Russian interests and particularly wanted to hit Moscow's embassy in Paris, the Interior Ministry said.
In September, explosives were found hidden on board a Moroccan Royal Air Maroc airliner which landed in the eastern French airport of Metz.
In December last year, French security failed to stop Reid from boarding an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami. The self-confessed al-Qaida member tried to blow up the plane with explosives hidden in his shoe.
