AZF

AZF was the name of a chemical factory near Toulouse, France, which exploded on September 21, 2001. In the spring of 2004, a terrorist group adopted the same name and extorted money from the French government. under the threat of exploding bombs on railway tracks if they did not comply with their financial requests.

On February 21, 2004, the discovery of hidden explosives on the Paris-Toulouse railway set off all the alarms and gave AZF a lot of credibility. All the French security forces were immediately mobilized: the anti-terrorist and anti-organized crime sections and all the information services. In total, more than 600 investigators were mobilized, and even the army, with the central device called Nedex, specialized in the neutralization and destruction of explosives.

The next day, the French Ministry of the Interior met in a crisis cabinet together with all the heads of the police services. "The threat is particularly fearsome,", said Claude Guéant, director of the cabinet of Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. It is an ingenious but rudimentary system, with pieces purchased in any store and other pieces made by hand. The explosive is a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, whose potency is 25% higher than that of TNT. Bomb squads from the Central Laboratory of the Paris Police Prefecture tested the charge on February 23: the shock wave tore off a 78-centimeter section of rail, projecting it thirty meters, an explosion sufficient to derail a high-speed train. speed. It was also necessary to take into account the experience of the saboteurs in choosing the place to place their bomb. The place where the device was located was indicated to the public authorities, with its exact position, using the GPS coordinates: "The explosive was so well concealed that the police officers had passed over it without realizing it", revealed a source close to the investigation. The policemen wondered if the terrorists really wanted to explode the bomb or if they simply wanted to make themselves credible and fearsome, so that the State would give them the 4 million euros and the million dollars they were demanding.

AZF was not only satisfied with planting a bomb that did not explode, it also asked for an advance, but did not show up to the appointment to collect the money. The day before, the police and the army had thoroughly rehearsed the maneuver dubbed Operation Zorro. On March 1, a helicopter took off from the French military base at Villacoublay. The head of the Central Office for the Repression of Organized Bands coordinated the operation together with the head of the RAID, with several hundred police officers deployed. At 5:20 p.m., a female voice contacted the Ministry of the Interior and the Government ordered the helicopter to take off carrying two large mail bags with 2 million dollars and 1.5 million euros, respectively. The helicopter had to follow the highway and travel several kilometers until it spotted a blue tarpaulin, on which it had to land and drop the bags. In addition, the aforementioned female voice warned: "Be careful with the power lines."

Because it was night, the helicopter missed the blue tarpaulin, so they had to wait until the next morning for a military plane to locate the rescue site. According to sources close to the investigation, the siren of one of the police vehicles turned on involuntarily. However, terrorism experts believe that no AZF member went to the scene. "Especially taking into account the means deployed, beginning with the Awacs radar plane that monitored the area; if someone had come, we would have known about it", a police officer said. It is strange that the blackmailers have chosen such a risky place as a wide esplanade for the appointment.

Subsequently, the enigmatic contact between the terrorists and the French government through brief advertisements in some French newspapers was interrupted and none of the announced threats was carried out.

The specialists in charge of the case, under the direction of Jean-Louis Bruguiere and Philippe Coirre, are limited for now to examining the few clues they have: the AZF letters exist, created by computer and sealed in various parts of the region from Paris, Melun and Maisons-Laffitte; secondly, the initials adopted by the blackmailers lead to the Toulouse chemical factory of the same name, whose explosion (which took place on September 21, 2001, only ten days after the attack on the Twin Towers in New York) caused the killed 30 people and injured more than 8,300 people.

Dated December 8, 2003 and addressed to the President of the Republic and the Minister of the Interior, the first letter arrived on December 11. On January 29 another letter arrived. The third was received on February 13. But on February 17, when AZF warned of a bombing on French railways, the government realized that it had to take this grave threat very seriously. Until that moment, the story seemed to be nothing more than the Machiavellian plan of a madman or a practical student prank, and not the direct, embarrassing and blatant blackmail of a structured terrorist organization. "The phraseology used is not that of a terrorist action in the sense in which we usually understand it,", said Claude Guéant, director of the cabinet of the French Interior Minister. Any relationship between the AZF gang and Al Qaida or the Corsican, Basque or Breton separatist movements was ruled out by the researchers, as well as certain small groups such as the Red Brigades, since all of them tend to hit before of any make any claim.

The three phone calls received by the Minister of the Interior also constitute another source of investigation. The first connection, lasting just 15 seconds, was made from a cabin in the Lyon train station. "From AZF: you need to hurry", warned a female voice. The next day, from a booth in the Place du Marche, in the town of Meaux, the same female voice –apparently it corresponds to a woman around 35 years old, with no accent-, stood up. agreement with your interlocutor about the place from which the helicopter should take off. The roof of the Montparnasse Tower (Paris) was judged impossible, since it is very dangerous, so they agreed that it would take off from Velizy. After 43 seconds, the conversation was abruptly interrupted: "We have the impression that someone else was with the woman", said a French police officer. The third call came on March 1, at 5:20 p.m., from a booth in Solterre, near Montargis.

Few clues and numerous hypotheses

The first theory that is speculated on is the military origin of the blackmailers, since "the manufacture of the bomb and the way in which it was hidden suggest military commandos ", according to sources close to the investigation. Another possible profile: a group of physics and chemistry professors from a technical school, no doubt helped by reading a World War II manual describing these types of sabotage techniques. "They would have both the theoretical knowledge to conceive this explosive device and the necessary technique and elements to manufacture it correctly", the same sources assured.

The second hypothesis, which is also being analyzed by the police, leads to some group of alter-globalization activists. In the mail, AZF gives the impression of wanting to ridicule the police and destabilize the French state. The creation created new techniques to deal with law enforcement, certain extremist activists could be inventing a new form of terrorism.

Thirdly, the possibility is being considered that it is a sect whose top leader calls himself by the diminutive Suzy. In the last week of March 2004, the French authorities had drawn up a list of various suspects placed under surveillance: members of sects, alter-globalists , ex-military, etc. The National Directorate for the Fight against Terrorism (DNAT) had planned a series of actions in the first week of March, but this dubious operation did not obtain the necessary permission from the French government.

AZF news sources

• Informations AZF
• Forum AZF
• Red alert at Le Monde stations 13/03/2004
• AZF retakes contact with the authorities L'Express 14/03/2004
• Two explosive devices discovered in Bidarrai Le Monde 15/03/2004
• "AZF: L'enquête assassinée", official website of the book of Franck Hériot & Jean-Christian Tirat, (Plon 2009) ISBN 978-259-20824-6