On Wednesday, Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency, officially acknowledged its assistance to the Brazilian Federal Police in preventing a Hezbollah plot targeting Jewish sites in the South American country.
Authorities said in a statement that two arrest warrants and 11 search warrants were executed in the state of Minas Gerais, as well as the cities of São Paulo and Brasília.
The two arrested were reportedly suspected of being affiliated with the Lebanese based terror organization and entered the country with the purpose of carrying out attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets.
The office of Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, released a statement after the arrests saying, "The Brazilian security services, together with the Mossad and its partners in the Israeli security community, alongside additional international security and enforcement agencies, have foiled a terrorist attack in Brazil, which had been planned by the Hezbollah terrorist organization, directed and financed by the Iranian regime. This was an extensive network that operated in additional countries."
The Prime Minister's spokespersons did not detail what other countries the terror cell may have had activity.
In 1982, Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps established Hezbollah with the purpose of combating Israeli forces following their invasion of Lebanon. The group has long been regarded as one of the more militarily capable Islamist groups in the Middle East.
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