Police in Argentina have arrested three people for suspicion of planning a terrorist attack at the Pan American Maccabi Games in Buenos Aires, according to police reports from Argentina.
The Argentine Federal Police (PFA) arrested three men from Syria and Lebanon, in Buenos Aires and the metropolitan area town of Avellaneda.
The three men were reportedly waiting for a 35-kilogram package to arrive from Yemen, related to their planned attack. According to the PFA, the package was addressed to the home of one of the three men.
Why would the Jewish community in Buenos Aires be the target of a planned terror attack?
During this time, the Pan-American Maccabi games are underway in Buenos Aires. The games are expected to bring together around 4,000 Jewish athletes and members of the Jewish community from North, Central, and South America. This event has caused security officials in Argentina to pay extra attention to safety and security matters for attendees.
Police also paid extra attention to the security of the event following suspicions regarding email threats and suspicious people lurking around the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires.
In October, an Iraqi national who was reportedly being investigated for falsifying Argentine documents was arrested after he was seen lurking outside of the embassy, carrying out phone conversations the same week that the embassy received a series of bomb threats.
One of the three suspects arrived in Argentina from Syria on different flights from his counterparts. The Syrian national was traveling with additional passports from both Venezuela and Colombia, also donning his name, news outlets in Argentina reported.
Though two were arriving from Lebanon, the three men reportedly arrived on separate international flights to Buenos Aires.
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