Seven people have been arrested in a months-long counter-terrorism sting across regional Queensland. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Police said they seized 20 kilograms of explosives alongside home-made bombs and guns in a series of raids across the state, most recently in August.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Officers from the counter-terrorism investigation group carried out the raids as part of Operation Whiskey Blackheart.<\/p>\n
One of the improvised explosive devices included a drone.<\/p>\n
Four men and three women have been arrested and charged with drug, weapon trafficking and explosives offences.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Seven people have been arrested in relation to home-made bombs. (Supplied: Queensland Police Service)<\/p>\n
The alleged offenders are set to appear in Brisbane and in regional Queensland courts in Proserpine, Beaudesert, Bowen and Townsville.<\/p>\n
A 41-year-old woman appeared in Bowen Magistrates Court, in North Queensland, on Tuesday charged with weapons trafficking.<\/p>\n
It is understood the seven people are known to each other.<\/p>\n
Police have not revealed any suspected motive, and said the arrests took place between January and August.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
An assault rifle was among the weapons seized. (Supplied: Queensland Police Service)<\/p>\n
In Townsville on Wednesday, Police Minister Dan Purdie would not comment on whether he knew of intended targets, stressing the matter was before the courts.<\/p>\n
“We talk a lot about our frontline police, but I want to assure all Queensland we have some of the best police in the country, particularly in our counter-terrorism investigation groups,” he said.<\/p>\n
“They do work around the clock in the background \u2026 we have some unbelievable specialist detectives.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Commercial explosives were seized in the counter-terrorism raids. (Supplied: Queensland Police Service)<\/p>\n
Townsville Acting Chief Superintendent Chris Lawson reassured the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“We have our counter-terrorism investigation team and intelligence team actively monitoring people across the state,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We have enough police in place so we can meet the risk as it comes.”<\/p>\n
Assistant Commissioner Charysse Pond said the arrests of the seven people came after an extensive investigation.<\/p>\n
“These arrests demonstrate the Queensland Police Service’s statewide commitment to keeping the community safe,” she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven people have been arrested in a months-long counter-terrorism sting across regional Queensland. \u00a0 Police said they seized…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263677,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[46894,64,63,2025,154544,1108,55020,154547,154545,154546,44,10471],"class_list":["post-263676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-arrests","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-charges","tag-counter-terrorism","tag-court","tag-drone","tag-home-made-bombs","tag-ied","tag-improvised-explosive-device","tag-news","tag-queensland-police-service"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}