OTTAWA, July 14: Canada’s security services used a prominent Muslim from Toronto to infiltrate an alleged terror cell behind the failed plot to behead the country’s prime minister, a newspaper said on Thursday.

The Toronto Star newspaper said a ‘well-known member of Toronto’s Muslim community’ cracked the group for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), in a probe launched in 2004.

Police arrested 17 suspects on June 2 in a massive sting operation against the group, which allegedly planned to use three tons of a common fertiliser to make bombs, and also schemed to behead Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

They face charges under Canada’s anti-terrorism act of belonging to a terror group and participating in related training.

The mole’s name cannot be published due to Canadian laws, but he is expected to testify in the coming prosecution, the newspaper said.

The involvement of a hired agent in the case shows Canada has launched a new offensive to safeguard against terrorism, the Star said. Previously, paid undercover agents were only used in organised crime investigations here.

It also points to a new level of cooperation between the RCMP and CSIS, which had previously fought over turf.

The RCMP had been mostly stripped of security responsibilities with the creation of CSIS two decades ago, but new security laws in 2001 brought the RCMP back into the fold.—AFP