As Part Of Counter Terrorism Awareness Week And Prevention Campaign, New Scotland Yard Says ‘Vulnerable People Are Being Brainwashed Through Social Media’

Hamza Nawaz. Source: Metropolitan Police Service.

British police nationwide are calling “upon communities to help tackle terrorism” in the wake of the arrests and subsequent convictions of two brothers accused of attending a terrorist training camp in Syria and returning to the United Kingdom, the Metropolitan Police Service said today.

Mohommod Hassin Nawaz, 31, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison. Younger brother Hamza Nawaz, 23, was sentenced to three years. The brothers, the service said, were stopped at Dover port in Southeast England at 3 a.m. on Sept. 16, 2013, after traveling on a ferry from Calais in Northern France.

A search of their silver Peugeot, the service said, resulted in the discovery of :

• Five rounds of 7.62mm ammunition “suitable for the use in a range of rifles and assault rifles.”
• Numerous mobile phones and a SIM card, containing “images, video clips and text messages relating training camps.”
• A “balaclava and heavy duty clothing,” including boots covered in dust.
• A total of £2,400 in cash.
• Travel documents identifying their movements.

“Officers found communications on their phones indicating that they had attended a terror training camp located in the Latakia province of Syria,” the service said. “Detectives believe that the brothers had cultivated an extremist mindset over a period of months prior to their travel.”

The Internet is being used to poison thinking, the service said.

Mohommod Nawaz. Source: Metropolitan Police Service.

“As more vulnerable people are being brainwashed through social media, police call for parents, carers, friends and colleagues to be alert to the signs of extremism,” the service said.

Said Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy, national policing lead for the Prevent Programme: “The police cannot be in every mosque, college or other community venue monitoring what is discussed and the doctrines which are promoted. Nor would we want Britain to be such a society.

“We need parents, schools, partners, friends and colleagues to be aware of the signs that someone is being influenced by extremist messages and have the confidence to report any concerns to the police,” he continued. “Look out for notable changes in behaviour and mood; those vulnerable may begin to express extreme political or radical views, or appear increasingly sympathetic to terrorist acts; their appearance may change along with the friends that they spend time with or they may start to spend excessive time on their own or on the internet.”

Also see report/video on BBC.com.

The Metropolitan Police Service also is known as New Scotland Yard.