Italy Arrests Teen Found with Jihadist Terror Material
Italian police arrested a 16-year-old from Bologna for possessing jihadist propaganda, weapons manuals, and materials related to terrorist violence and white supremacist ideology.
The Questura state police headquarters in Verona confirmed the arrest followed an investigation launched in the fall of 2025, conducted with assistance from Bologna law enforcement. Authorities began monitoring supremacist online channels as part of routine counterterrorism efforts when one user attracted attention for publishing manuals on using heavy vehicles for violent attacks and offering tips to maintain anonymity online.
Investigators identified the account holder as the 16-year-old Bologna resident, who now remains detained at a temporary detention center in Ancona. Local judicial authorities have upheld the arrest and imposed a two-month ban preventing the minor from using electronic devices or accessing the internet.
Police officers conducting a search of the minor’s residence uncovered handwritten A4 sheets featuring drawings, symbols, and emblems linked to white supremacist ideology, alongside typewritten instructions for constructing a homemade bulletproof vest.
Forensic analysis of the teenager’s smartphone revealed extensive content of investigative significance, including white supremacist and jihadist propaganda materials, manuals for building homemade weapons and handguns, a text translated from Cyrillic containing instructions on corrosive chemicals, and a guide for assembling improvised explosive devices.
The Verona Questura reported that investigators also discovered a complete copy of the video documenting the 2019 Christchurch massacre, accompanied by messages praising the perpetrator as a role model.
Intercepted communications revealed discussions about reestablishing clandestine organizations within Italy, with references to homemade weapons and planned violent actions targeting specific groups, including influential judges and journalists.
Authorities characterized the case as an example of what counterterrorism experts term “white jihad,” describing a convergence of ideologies united by their glorification of violence as a means of ideological assertion.
The arrest comes weeks after Italian police detained Zakaria Ben Haddi, a 21-year-old man born in Vimercate, Brianza to Moroccan migrant parents. Ben Haddi was arrested on orders from the Milan Public Prosecutor’s office after investigators determined he authored social media posts glorifying martyrdom and promoting radical Islamic terrorism against the West and Christianity.
Content published by Ben Haddi suggested he intended to carry out a terrorist attack in Italy similar to the May 15 car-ramming attack in Modena perpetrated by 31-year-old Salim El Koudri.
With information from Breitbart News
