How gun plot targeting Jewish community was stopped

How gun plot targeting Jewish community was stopped Two men who plotted to attack Jews in Greater Manchester in what could have been "the UK's most deadly terrorist attack" were caught by an undercover operative who put himself in "significant danger", police said. The pair travelled to Dover to observe security around the port prior to the weapons being brought into the country Walid Saadaoui, 38, arranged to smuggle four AK-47 assault rifles, two handguns and 900 rounds of ammunition into the country. Saadaoui worked together with 52-year-old Amar Hussein, and another man called Farouk, who they believed shared the same extreme ideology. But Farouk was actually an undercover operative. Who was the operative? Farouk was authorised to make contact with Saadaoui after detectives linked several Facebook pages he had set up using fakes names to spread Islamic extremist views, Greater Manchester Police said. "He put himself in a position of significant personal danger," Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) Rob Potts said. "He took risks with his life to give us the ability to protect the public." Saadaoui's trial was told he hero-worshipped Islamic State (IS) terrorist Abdelhamid Abaaoud who orchestrated the 2015 Paris terror attacks in which 130 people were killed. He described the killing of 130 people and wounding of hundreds more as a "great event." Farouk made contact with Saadaoui in December 2022 before the pair met in a car park in Bolton to discuss a plan to bring the weapons into the country from Europe. "We didn't know who he was at the time so we had to do more work to identify that individual," ACC Potts said. "Through that we were able to gain and understanding of his ideology, his mindset and what he was hoping to achieve." The operative's role was "completely crucial", ACC Potts said. "It gave us the best ability to gain the evidence we needed but also to control the operation and enabled us to run it without taking any risks involving members of the public." Who were the men? Saadaoui, who is understood to have UK citizenship, was a hotel entertainer in the Tunisian coastal resort of Sousse more than a decade before he plotted the mass killing spree. By day he joined guests, mainly Western tourists, in pool sessions of aerobics and water polo, while at night he helped stage dance shows and quiz contests. He started a relationship with an English holidaymaker named Jane and told his trial at Preston Crown Court they lived in his home country for a year and got married before they decided to move to the UK in 2012. Saadaoui successfully applied for a work visa and the couple moved to Clacton-on Sea, Essex, where he worked in the town's Haven Holiday Village and was employed in its shops, bakery and arcade. He said he saved up by working extra hours at the site for six years and in April 2018 bought The Albatross restaurant in Great Yarmouth, with the assistance of a bank...

Preview: ~500 words