RCMP say a father and son who were arrested in Richmond Hill on terrorism charges last week were "in the advanced stages of planning a serious violent attack in Toronto."
At a news conference Wednesday morning, RCMP officials said an Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) became aware of the threat in early July.
"On July, 28 2024, GTA INSET arrested a father and son at a hotel in Richmond Hill who were in the advanced stages of planning a serious violent attack in Toronto," Assistant Commissioner Matt Peggs, Commanding Officer for Ontario, told reporters.
An emergency response team moved in to arrest the pair at a hotel room they were renting in Richmond Hill that night after the men allegedly acquired an axe and a machete.
Officials said the arrests were effected "in a textbook fashion" without any excess damage "beyond what you’d expect" and no injuries.
"The teams that were responsible and the support teams that were responsible for effecting that arrest completed their job in a tactical manner," RCMP Superintendent James Parr said. "They did it exactly the way they're trained, and it went off exactly the way that it was planned."
Exclusive video obtained by CP24 shows members of an emergency response team carrying out a raid at the pair's Scarborough home the same evening they were arrested.
The two men, who are both Canadian citizens, are Toronto residents and it’s not clear why they were at the hotel in Richmond Hill.
"We're still trying to establish exactly who were the intended targets of this," Parr said.
Police said they were not aware of any other targets outside of Toronto.
Police also said they believe the scope of the planned attack was “small” but “real.”
“The information we have is it wasn’t some sort of widespread sort of threat which provides us some confidence in saying that we believe the threat is neutralized,” Parr said. “We don’t believe there is something outstanding right now as we sit here. But as far as where that plan might have went, naturally we don’t know how it could have grown.”
The two men are now facing six terror-related charges altogether.
Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi, 62, and Mostafa Eldidi, 26, appeared in court to face the charges July 29.
In court documents, prosecutors allege that sometime between July 1 and July 29, the two men knowingly facilitated a terrorist activity and were knowingly helping the Islamic State enhance its ability to carry out terrorist activity.
Specifically, the documents allege the two were conspiring to commit murder for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with the Islamic State.
That happened, RCMP allege, while the men were in Toronto, York Region and other parts of Ontario.
Prosecutors allege that around July 28, Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi bought an axe and that Mostafa Eldidi bought a machete for the benefit of, at the direction of or in association with the Islamic State.
The documents do not say exactly what the two may have planned to do next.
Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi is also charged with committing an aggravated assault outside of Canada for the benefit of the Islamic State in June of 2015.
INSETs are multi-agency teams made up of specially trained members of the RCMP and other law enforcement and national security partners at the federal, provincial and municipal levels.
Parr said that the investigation "was very fast-moving" after INSET became aware of the potential threat in early July.
"They were charged with having particular weapons. In other words, we're pretty confident how close they were to moving from simply having those tools and then moving on to actioning that threat," he said.
While he preferred not to use the word "imminent," he said "it was close" and the swift work of various law enforcement agencies moved the investigation along quickly.
"From what we have, we knew that there was a threat potentially to Toronto," Parr said.
RCMP decided it was time to act when it was clear that the alleged attack was "apparent and forthcoming," Parr said.
"This wasn't a cat and mouse monitoring type situation. We wouldn't obviously put the public in jeopardy that way."
Parr said it's not clear whether the men planned to acquire any other weapons and indicated that information would emerge through the investigation.
The family is believed to have moved to Canada at some point, but police could not say when.
