Lebanese-Canadian Man Detained in Cyprus with 420 Boxes of Ammonium Nitrate

On May 27, police in Lanarca, Cyprus arrested and detained an unidentified 26-year-old Lebanese man holding a Canadian passport after finding 420 boxes containing 67 thousand packages of ammonium nitrate in his house.

Cypriot police are investigating possible links between the man and Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Lebanese Shia terrorist group that aims to destroy Israel. The man may have been training with Hezbollah’s military wing and is believed to be closely connected to Sayyed Hassan Nazrallah, Hezbollah’s current leader. Police are looking into the possibility that the man was planning to attack Israeli interests.

The man arrived in Cyprus last week and was staying in a two-story house in a residential neighborhood in Larenca, a coastal town. He will remain in police custody for at least eight days and his court proceedings will not be made public for national security reasons. He is being held on charges of conspiracy to commit a criminal offense and of the possession of ammonium nitrate. Ammonium nitrate, while commonly used as a fertilizer, can be used in large quantities to make explosives. The man said that he knew that the chemical compound was in the house, but that it did not belong to him.

Cyprus, a popular vacation destination for Israelis, is not typically targeted in terrorist attacks, although it is a small transport point for the trafficking of drugs into Europe from Lebanon and Turkey. The last major terrorist-related incident Cyprus underwent was in 1988 when a failed attempt to attack the Israeli embassy killed three people. In 2013, a Swedish citizen of Lebanese descent was arrested for plotting to attack Israeli tourists. He maintained that he was not planning any violence, but had instead been asked by Hezbollah to gather information about Israeli tourists on the island.

Due to its history of having few terrorist attacks, its attraction to Israeli tourists, and the information provided by the Swedish national in 2013, the possibility is high that Hezbollah is planning to carry out an attack against Israeli targets in Cyprus. Police must act very quickly to find and detain anyone else who owns or frequents the house where the ammonium nitrate was found. The man they detained arrived in Cyprus only a week prior to his arrest and police believe that people had been gathering the ammonium nitrate at the house for a long time, indicating that he was acting with others.

Cyprus is a member of the European Union (EU), and travel between countries in the EU is incredibly easy and does not require much documentation. Although travel to and from Cyprus still requires a passport, Cypriots linked to Hezbollah would likely run into little trouble. Therefore, European countries, especially EU member states, must maintain a heightened awareness of Hezbollah-linked activity while Cypriot police investigate this case further, in order to stay ahead of any future attacks throughout Europe to which it may be linked.