Peruvian police on Friday said they had captured an Iranian and a Peruvian national who were allegedly planning an attack on an Israeli businessman at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), scheduled to be held later this year in the Andean nation.
Peru's chief of police, Oscar Arriola, told a press conference the arrests were made after an investigation in coordination with international intelligence agencies, which provided "sensitive" information about an Iranian citizen who arrived in Peru at the beginning of March.
"We had to act quickly because today (the Iranian) was set to return to Iran after forming a terrorist cell to wipe out an Israeli national" who was going to participate in the APEC event, Arriola said.
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Both the Iranian, whom Arriola identified as 56-year-old Majid Azizi, a member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force who has been living in Peru since 1997, and the Peruvian were arrested on Thursday, he said. Azizi also holds Peruvian nationality by marriage, Arriola said.
Arriola said that authorities had identified the Israeli who would have been targeted in the attack, though they were choosing not to release the person's name due to security reasons.