TORONTO — A Toronto man has been arrested on terrorism charges and is also facing charges for two failed kidnappings of women.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Waleed Khan, 27, in late November for providing property knowing it would be used by the the Islamic State group and providing social media accounts knowing they would be used by or benefit ISIS.
Toronto Police chief Myron Demkiw said in a statement Khan and two other men have also have been arrested for “offences targeting women and members of the Jewish community.”
Toronto police say Khan and two other suspects are facing dozens of charges in a parallel investigation into alleged hate-motivated crimes.
Police in Toronto and Peel Region say they made the arrests after connecting two incidents that occurred weeks apart in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario.
In the first incident, police say a woman was approached by three men in north Toronto on May 31. One of the men had a handgun and another was armed with a knife, they say.
The men allegedly tried to force the woman into a vehicle but took off when a passing motorist interrupted them, police say.
On June 24, two women were chased by three armed men in Mississauga, police say. The suspects fled when a passerby interrupted.
Officers searched the suspects’ homes and seized firearms, ammunition, high-capacity magazines and other evidence, police say.
The evidence collected broadened the scope of the investigation to include hate-motivated crimes targeting women and members of the Jewish community in particular, as well as links to terrorism that led to the RCMP investigation, they say.
“What began as armed, coordinated attempts to kidnap women led to significant arrests and charges, stopping a dangerous escalation of hate-motivated crimes and terrorism across the Greater Toronto Area and beyond,” Peel Regional Police Chief Nishan Duraiappah said in a statement.
