Sixteen-year-old arrested in Bologna area with weapons manuals and jihadist propaganda
A 16-year-old resident in the Bologna area has been arrested by Verona's Digos for possession of material intended for terrorist purposes. Weapons manuals and supremacist and jihadist material were found in his home.
Sixteen-year-old detained with jihadist material and weapons-making manuals
A 16-year-old boy residing in the Bologna area has been arrested by Verona's Digos for possession of material intended for terrorism purposes. This is reported by bologna.repubblica.it. The searches — personal, residential and digital — were carried out pursuant to a decree from the Office of the Public Prosecutor at the Tribunal for Minors in Bologna, with the support of the Bologna Digos and the coordination of the Central Direction of Prevention Police.
The investigations began in autumn 2025 as part of monitoring of channels linked to supremacist extremism. The findings led to identification of the young man's account and transfer of coordination from the District Public Prosecutor's Office in Venice to that for Minors in the Emilia-Romagna capital. In investigative terms, the mixture of supremacist content and jihadist propaganda is defined as "white jihad": a convergence of seemingly distant ideologies, united by the exaltation of violence as an ideological instrument.
During the residential search, sheets of A4 paper were found bearing drawings, symbols and emblems traceable to supremacist ideology and a typewritten page with instructions for the handmade manufacture of a bulletproof vest. On the minor's smartphone were propaganda material, manuals for the production of improvised weapons — including one for the construction of a pistol — a text translated from Cyrillic with information on aggressive chemical substances and a manual for the assembly of explosive devices.
On the same device was also found the full video of the Christchurch attack (New Zealand) in 2019, accompanied by messages in which the author of the massacre — sentenced to life imprisonment — was indicated as a model to emulate.
The boy was arrested in flagrante delicto and transferred to a first-reception facility in Ancona. The arrest was validated by the Judicial Authority, which imposed for two months a prohibition on the use of electronic devices and access to the internet, as well as a prohibition on searching for, acquiring or possessing material linked to subversive or terrorist ideologies.
Source: Google News IT — Crime (it)