MOSCOW, April 1. /TASS/. Members of a terrorist cell of foreigners headquartered in Dagestan that funded and armed the terrorists who attacked Crocus City Hall and were also preparing a terrorist attack on Kaspiysk have been detained, the FSB press office told TASS.
"On March 31, the Republic of Dagestan’s branch of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) suppressed the activity of a terrorist cell consisting of four foreign citizens who were plotting a terrorist act in a public place in Kaspiysk," the press office said. "It was also established that the detained militants were directly involved in financing and providing instruments of terror to the perpetrators of the March 22 terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall music venue in a Moscow suburb," the press office added.
According to the FSB, "the criminals scouted the location, made an improvised explosive device and acquired automatic weapons" in Dagestan. Immediately after the terrorist attack, they planned to leave Russia.
Earlier, the National Antiterrorism Committee reported that on the night of March 31, the FSB’s special forces raided several apartments in Makhachkala and Kaspiysk, arresting armed persons involved in terrorist activities. In the morning, three militants were detained. Investigators seized automatic weapons, ammunition, and a ready-made improvised explosive device from them.