Toronto terrorism threat (UPDATE 4)

The Toronto Star is reporting that the RCMP "had to move quickly Friday night to arrest 12 men and five youths before the group could launch a bomb attack on Canadian soil" (at least according to the RCMP).

According to RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell, "[the] group posed a real and serious threat. It had the capacity and intent to carry out these acts."

According to the Star, "[i]t's still unclear how the group of suspects is connected and police Saturday offered few details of its alleged activities". However, "sources close to the investigation told the Star that the investigation began in 2004 when CSIS began monitoring fundamentalist Internet sites and their users".

Indeed: "The delivery of three tonnes of ammonium nitrate to a group suspected of plotting terrorist attacks in southern Ontario was part of an undercover police sting operation... Sources say investigators who had learned of the group's alleged plan to build a bomb were controlling the sale and transport of the massive amount of fertilizer, a key component in creating explosives. Once the deal was done, the RCMP-led anti-terrorism task force moved in for the arrests."

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Fifteen of the 17 suspects appeared in court yesterday in Brampton, Ontario, a large suburb north-west of Toronto. The CBC has more here.

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Meanwhile, a west-end Toronto mosque has been vandalized. It's not clear if there's a link to the arrests of the terror suspects. See also here.