PARIS, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- French police arrested up to 30 people Monday as part of a terrorist inquiry, local radio reported.
The arrests of between 20 and 30 people took place around Paris and in the Oise region of France.
They included individuals known for belonging to organized criminal gangs, RTL radio reported. They are suspected of staging armed robberies to finance radical Islamist causes.
French investigators were reportedly "convinced" those arrested intended to stage violent acts on French territory, the radio station reported.
Some 20 suspects were arrested before dawn in five different regions. Others were arrested several hours later around suburban Paris, RTL said.
Police have staged dozens of arrests of suspected Islamist this year alone.
Among them were members of a gang that allegedly tried to recruit people to join the insurgency in Iraq.
The estimated five million Muslims living in France represent Europe's largest Muslim community. The overwhelming majority are either non-practicing or adhere to a peaceful branch of Islam. Only a tiny fraction are radical. Some of the most extreme are French converts to Islam, experts say.
