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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/nov/20/arrested-planning-terrorist-act-police-raid-houses-melbourne
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| Three men 'planning terrorist act' arrested after police raid houses in Melbourne | Three men 'planning terrorist act' arrested after police raid houses in Melbourne |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Three men have been arrested for allegedly plotting a “terrorist act” aimed at killing “as many people as possible” at a crowded Melbourne location, police have said. | |
| Australian federal police and Victoria police said the men had been arrested on Tuesday morning after allegedly being “involved in undertaking preparations for planning a terrorist act”. | |
| The joint counter terrorism team, which includes Australian Security Intelligence Organisation officers, executed four warrants in Melbourne’s northern suburbs. | |
| A 30-year-old from Dallas, a 26-year-old from Campbellfield, and 21-year-old from Greenvale remain in custody. The men were being interviewed on Tuesday morning and will front court later in the day. | |
| The AFP assistant commissioner, Ian McCartney, said if police had not acted “early in preventing this attack, we’ll allege the consequences would have been chilling”. | |
| The Victoria police chief commissioner, Graham Ashton, alleged that the group had not identified a final location but said they had been eyeing off a “crowded place”. | |
| “They were trying to have a place where they could kill as many people as possible,” Ashton said. | |
| He alleged that police had seen the group become “much more energised over the past week” and determined that they had enough evidence to intervene. | |
| Investigators had been monitoring the terrorist suspects since March, he said, and they had been in the process of acquiring of a .22 semi-automatic rifle. | |
| Two of the three men were related, police said. They are Australians of Turkish descent and had cancelled their passports in January, March and October. | |
| They will be charged with preparing a terrorist act, which potentially carries a life sentence. | |
| McCartney said police would allege the men were radicalised “within this cell as a group”. “We’re not suggesting this has been directed by Isis,” he said. | |
| He said the three men had been communicating using encrypted apps. | |
| Speaking hours before the funeral of the Melbourne cafe owner Sisto Malaspina, who was killed in a terrorist attack this month, authorities indicated there was no further threat to the public. | |
| “We don’t believe there is any extended threat outside of the group we have custody,” said Ross Guenther, a Victoria police assistant commissioner. | |
| The state premier, Daniel Andrews, said he was “grateful” to the 200 police officers involved in Tuesday’s operation. “The seriousness of this potential incident should not be underestimated,” he said. | |
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