Police move on suspected Anonymous members in Italy

Police in Italy have launched a series of raids aimed at arresting the heads of the local Anonymous chapter.

Reports collected from local media claim that the authorities have carried out raids in Italy and border towns in Switzerland with the aim of dismantling the Italian activities of the hacktivist group.

Among the reported targets was a 26 year-old Itallian man who used the online alias 'Frey'. The suspect was picked up in Switzerland and is said to be the country's Anonymous leader.

A statement from Italian police confirmed that 32 raids were carried out, and that 15 people were questioned. Three arrests were made.

In a statement posted on AnonOps and Anonymous Italy, a group claiming to represent the Italian division of Anonymous denied that its leaders had been apprehended and vowed retaliation for the police action.

"Anonymous has no leaders, no structure. All anonymous members operate at the same level," the statement reads. "Those arrested are not 'dangerous hackers' as the media calls them, but people like you."

The group also said that its activities in Italy are not criminal, but rather a peaceful protest for user rights.

"The Italian Anonymous have not fallen because of this cowardly attempt to dismantle them, and announce consequences for [the] actions taken by the police to demonstrate that Anonymous is present and fights on, like it did in the past and will in the future, for the freedom of the internet," the statement reads.

Police have arrested suspected Anonymous members in Spain and Turkey in recent weeks, and last month authorities in the UK arrested a man thought to be involved with LulzSec, the short-lived hacker group believed to have been loosely affiliated with Anonymous.