A man arrested by French police for allegedly plotting an attack on the country has been identified as Reda Kriket, a source close to the investigation told CNN.
Kriket was arrested in a raid near Paris on Thursday night. He’s been linked to the mastermind of the Paris terror attacks that left 130 people dead.
Court documents show that Kriket, 34, was previously found guilty in absentia and sentenced to 10 years in prison for being part of a jihadist network.
A Belgian court convicted Kriket in July 2015, along with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the November terror attacks in Paris.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the terror plot thwarted Thursday night was in an “advanced stage” of planning.
The arrest was the result of a detailed investigation that took place over several weeks, he said during a televised address.
Many Europeans are on guard after this week’s terror attacks in Belgium that killed 31 people and wounded 270.
Investigators are aware of multiple additional ISIS plots in Europe possibly linked to the Paris and Brussels networks that are in various stages of planning.
A combination of electronic intercepts, human sources and database tracking indicates several possible targets had been picked out by ISIS operatives over the past few months since the Paris attacks, U.S. counterterrorism officials said.
Since the start of the year, French authorities have arrested 75 people as part of the fight against terrorism. Those arrests have led to 37 people being placed under formal investigation and to 28 others being incarcerated, Cazeneuve said.
