UPDATED: Is the Islamic State already in Italy?

What should be encouraging news in the continuing struggle against jihadist terrorists throughout the world may be more troubling than encouraging:

Italian police have confirmed that a man suspected of being involved in March’s terrorist attack on Tunis Bardo Museum, has been arrested. The attack left 24 people dead including four Italian nationals.

Touil Abdelmajid, a 22-year old Moroccan national, had been sheltering with family members in Gaggiano, around 13 kilometres southwest of the city centre. According to reports in the national media, he returned to Italy on one of the migrant boats, which have dominated headlines in recent weeks [more, emphasis mine].

Italian police have confirmed that a man suspected of being involved in March’s terrorist attack on Tunis Bardo Museum, has been arrested. The attack left 24 people dead including four Italian nationals.
 Touil Abdelmajid, a 22-year old Moroccan national, had been sheltering with family members in Gaggiano, around 13 kilometres southwest of the city centre. According to reports in the national media, he returned to Italy on one of the migrant boats, which have dominated headlines in recent weeks.
- See more at: http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/2925#sthash.u1uTrduG.dpuf

Italian police have confirmed that a man suspected of being involved in March’s terrorist attack on Tunis Bardo Museum, has been arrested. The attack left 24 people dead including four Italian nationals.
 Touil Abdelmajid, a 22-year old Moroccan national, had been sheltering with family members in Gaggiano, around 13 kilometres southwest of the city centre. According to reports in the national media, he returned to Italy on one of the migrant boats, which have dominated headlines in recent weeks.
- See more at: http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/2925#sthash.u1uTrduG.dpuf

Italian police have confirmed that a man suspected of being involved in March’s terrorist attack on Tunis Bardo Museum, has been arrested. The attack left 24 people dead including four Italian nationals.
 Touil Abdelmajid, a 22-year old Moroccan national, had been sheltering with family members in Gaggiano, around 13 kilometres southwest of the city centre. According to reports in the national media, he returned to Italy on one of the migrant boats, which have dominated headlines in recent weeks.
- See more at: http://www.italianinsider.it/?q=node/2925#sthash.u1uTrduG.dpuf

A report from the Associated Press says that

Police say the Moroccan man arrested in connection with the Tunisian museum attack had arrived in Italy aboard a migrant boat a month before the attack and was ordered expelled.

It's not clear how or if he ever left.

Touil Abdelmajid's brother has confirmed that Touil arrived in Italy through a migrant boat.

The migrant boats have been in the news in recent weeks because authorities in Libya have warned the Italian government that fighters from the Islamic State will arrive in Italy "in the coming weeks" in the migrant boats:

Terrorists belonging to Islamic State (ISIS) will be coming to Italy "in the coming weeks" hidden among migrants on boats, Omar al Gawari, information minister in Libya's Tobruk government, told ANSA Tuesday [May 12, 2015]. Reports in recent months have also warned that ISIS terrorists are moving into Italy as well as threatening to attack the Vatican.

Even so, the Foreign Minister of Italy said in response to this information, "Our intelligence services say that there is no information of infiltration by terrorists onto immigrant boats."

This is not encouraging and is instead quite troubling. Why? Because the Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on the Bardo Museum. This claim, together with the arrest of Abdelmajid, suggest it is time to step up intelligence operations in this regard, especially given the number of Tunisians who support the Islamic State:

Authorities say as many as 3,000 Tunisians have gone to Iraq, Syria and Libya to join jihadist ranks, raising fears of returning militants plotting attacks.

The cause for the concern, however, is even greater when the news of this arrest is taken together with the news of the three Algerians detained last week.

The Islamic State is spreading, even to Rome, and it's beyond time to start taking it seriously.

UPDATE: I am not the only one troubling by yesterday's arrest. Writing for the Washington Post, Adam Taylor summarized the situation well:

...Italy is no doubt one factor that explains the Islamic State's expansion to Libya. The Italian island of Lampedusa lies about 100 miles from Libya, and documents made for internal consumption by Islamic State supporters had suggested the group could use it as a base for reaching Europe.

Libya "has a long coast and looks upon the southern Crusader states, which can be reached with ease by even a rudimentary boat," said one unofficial Islamic State letter translated by London's Quilliam Foundation recently.

The idea that it could open the way for Islamist militants was one of the key criticisms of Italy's Mare Nostrum project, a vast search-and-rescue operation that is estimated to have saved more than 130,000 people from the Mediterranean. Under Mare Nostrum, these migrants were taken into Italy and offered medical treatment and even legal aid that could help them claim asylum.

 However one looks at the current situation, it is not good.