From the pro-Iranian Islamist group to French “little hands”: the foiled attack against the Bank of America in Paris, or the Uberization of terrorism

Under the yellow light of the street lamps, two figures dressed in black advance on the sidewalk of rue La Boétie, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It’s 3:20 a.m. The rain is pouring down. Without knowing it, they overtake the unmarked car of the anti-crime squad where the police are hiding.

Through their dripping windshield, they watch the two silhouettes stop in front of the entrance to the Bank of America, place a large shopping bag and take out a compact object. One of the suspects crosses the street, phone in hand as if to film his accomplice, while the latter takes out a lighter. Understanding the emergency, the police rushed on him.

Under the hood, they discovered a 17-year-old boy struggling nervously before being subdued. The other, of the same age, fled and was caught the next day.

This night of March 28, 2026, they planned to detonate a device that was certainly homemade - a can of gasoline taped to a firecracker of "unusual size" - but very powerful. “At the time of the explosion, it could have generated a fireball several meters in diameter and spread a fire,” notes the central laboratory of the police headquarters which analyzed the tool.

These young people lacking direction, flirting with petty crime, seem to be the last links in a criminal organization that is beyond them. Investigators from the anti-terrorist section and the DGSI (General Directorate of Internal Security) know that these “little hands” are only the tip of the iceberg. There is a whole chain of intermediaries…