IBM nanotech bombers foiled by Swiss traffic police

A plan to blow up IBM's new nanotechnology centre in Switzerland was apparently foiled this months by a routine traffic stop.

Italians Costantino Ragusa and Silvia Guerini, and Italian-Swiss Luca Bernasconi were stopped by traffic police on April 15.

The trio were found to be carrying "explosives and further items in their car" as well as a note "indicating a planned attack on the branch of an international company," said Jeannette Balmer, a spokeswoman for the Federal Prosecutors Office according to the SonntagsBlick newspaper.

Their car was stopped six miles from Rueschlikon, where IBM is building a multi-billion dollar nanotechnology laboratory, which showed off new research last week. According to the paper the car contained a letter detailing the target as IBM's centre.

The three are reported to be members of Il Silvestre, an Italian activist group. Costantino Ragusa and Silvia Guerini were convicted in 2006 along with other activists to several years in prison for a series of arson attacks on the homes of Italian entrepreneurs, trade unionists and politicians the paper reports.

"IBM has been notified by Swiss police authorities about an investigation and is cooperating accordingly," company spokesman Chris Sciacca told The Associated Press.