TORONTO, June 4 (UPI) -- Seventeen Canadian residents arrested on terrorism charges may have had contact with two recently arrested Georgia citizens, the FBI alleges.
Canadian security and police forces carried out a series of raids in the Toronto area Friday night and Saturday morning and say they foiled a plot to bomb one or more Canadian sites, The New York Times reports.
An FBI statement said there was "limited contact" between the men arrested in Canada and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee and Syed Haris Ahmed, two men from Georgia arrested recently on terrorism-linked charges.
The Georgia suspects are believed to have attended a meeting of alleged would-be terrorists in Canada in 2005, the Times said.
Canadian police say the new sweep centers on the suspects alleged purchase of more three tons of ammonium nitrate, which becomes highly explosive when mixed with gasoline.
Mike McDonnell, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the men planned to use the fertilizer to attack an unknown location or locations in Canada, the Times said.
He compared the three tons of nitrate to the one ton used to kill 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Meanwhile, New York security officials say they are in constant contact with Canadian law enforcement, but haven't added any reinforcements to the border, the Times said.
