Federal Security Service (FSB) spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko announced on 9 June that the security service and the Interior Ministry conducted a joint operation in Moscow on 6 June in which 121 terrorist suspects were arrested. Ignatchenko said the Hizb ut-Tahrir network, which was banned as a terrorist organization by Russia in February, \"covers all regions of the Russian Federation\" and was engaged in recruiting mercenaries and funding and arming armed gangs operating in the North Caucasus and CIS countries. Fifty-five of the individuals arrested are suspected of being active members of Hizb ut-Tahrir. In one raid, explosives, detonators, and extremist leaflets were confiscated from a Kyrgyz citizen who allegedly heads the cell, Alisher Musaev, and in another explosives and detonators were taken from a Tajik suspect, Akram Dzhalolov. He said most of the 121 suspects were from \"Mediterranean Countries.\" According to Ignatchenko, Hizb ut-Tahrir received funds from a network of Uzbek eateries in Moscow. Hizb ut-Tahrir is active in Uzbekistan, where it has up to 10,000 members, as well as in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries of the region. (ITAR-TASS)