In northern Italy, police raided 42 houses and rounded up six members (five Tunisians and a Moroccan) of  the Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), one of the Islamic radical groups operating in Algeria, and the one suspected of holding fifteen Europeans hostage near the Libyan border in southern Algeria. GSPC members have long used Europe as a base. The men arrested in Italy were raising money via criminal activities (various forms of theft and fraud.) European governments tolerated this for many years, but are now cracking down because of the many Algerian Islamic radicals who also work with al Qaeda.