A group of far-right extremists planned to blow up a mosque near Siena before changing their minds for fear of being caught, police said after placing 12 people under investigation and arresting two of them in and around Siena on Tuesday.
The group planned to blow up the mosque at Colle Val d'Elsa near Siena by blowing up a gas pipe, police said.
One of the group is heard on a wiretap saying "he had brought the maps, we wanted him to blow up the gas thingy so that the whole lot would have been blown up", police said.
They allegedly dropped the plan fearing that the police would catch them.
The two arrested were Andrea Chesi, 60, a bank worker, and his son Yuri, aged 22.
They were arrested on charges of possessing explosives and parts of war ordnance. Police in Florence and Siena on Tuesday placed the 12 people under investigation in the probe into potentially subversive far-right extremist militants.
The suspects are being probed for possession of weapons with the aim of setting up an association with subversive ends, police said.
DIGOS security police carried out raids of homes and offices in the province of Siena, police said.
The suspects allegedly hailed racial hatred and fascism, police said.
One of them, aged 60, posted phots of him wearing a uniform with SS insignia on social media, riding a military sidecar.
In another photo, tagged "harking back to the good old days", he is holding a rocket launcher.
In another he is photographed on the site of Benito Mussolini's execution by partisans while making a sign that he is shooting a sign belonging to partisan association ANPI.
In the past, the man allegedly bought a lathe to make silencers for pistols for "half of Siena", police said.
In another, he said his grandsons would have to fight "with arms against the peril of Islam".
Another man, aged 66, belonging to the neofascist Movimento Idea Sociale (MIS) group, allegedly said he had quarelled with foreigners at his workplace and "they should all be killed".
Police said the suspects were "of a certain age" and did not have criminal records.
A lot of material was seized including weapons for which the suspects had licenses, police said.
Explosives were found at one of the raided premises, police said, and a bomb squad was called in.
Police said the raids and searches were carried out at Sovicille, Poggibonsi, and the centre of Siena.
"At the moment we have not found evidence of links to existing extreme right political groups," police said.
"The searches are the first act in a probe that has to be developed," said Florence anti-mafia unit chief prosecutor Giuseppe Creazzo.
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