Mines Hodza

Mines Hodza is a Kosovar citizen, born and raised in Italy, in the province of Trento. Born in 2001, he was 22 at the time of his arrest in 2022 and was working as a chemical technician in a laboratory in his hometown of Alto Garda.

His radicalization process likely began in 2018. This process was characterized by the systematic consumption of jihadist content on the internet, likely resorting to the dark web to access Islamic State-linked chats, pages, and forums. He also contributed to the diffusion of the jihadist contents, in a bid to find new recruits. His wife (also of Kosovar origins), whom he married according to Islamic tradition, and who was 19, had also reportedly been radicalised, wearing the hijab even inside the house.

During his radicalisation he grew his beard more and more, he would train in his room and would dress in military fatigues. The culmination of the process was his planning of a terrorist attack in the town of Riva del Garda, which should have taken place in August 2022. Making use of his chemical knowledge, the access to the lab where he worked, and the information found online, he procured the chemical precursors needed to produce TATP explosive; these chemicals were found in his house once arrested, although TATP had not been produced.
A month before his arrest, Hodza had also “tested” his plan by making a firecracker explode at the intended site. He and his wife had also planned to escape to Nigeria, and had saved 8500 euros for this. The plan reached a halt when the wife couldn’t manage to get a vaccine for yellow fever without her parents knowing.
The couple was arrested in June 2022.

The tip to Italian investigators came in February of 2022 from the FBI. Interestingly, Hodza and his family were decently integrated in the local context, he had a stable job and did not seem to live in particular isolation. While his parents did not play a role in his radicalization, the uncle of his wife, Seat Bajaraktar, was an imam in the city of Siena, who had been expelled in 2019 for national security reasons.
Hodza was also found to be in contact with a jihadist cell in Indonesia, where local authorities were able to arrest an individual after a tip from Italian investigators.

Mines Hodza was charged under article 270 bis for association with terrorist purposes, and in 2024 he was sentenced to 3 years and 8 months in prison. During the trial he disavowed his association with IS and said he wouldn’t have hurt anyone.
In April 2025, the court of appeal revised the sentence to 3 years as they found limitations to his capacity to “intend and will”.
Hodza’s wife was found not guilty.