Truck attacker was pork-eating drug-user with ‘unbridled sex life’ before taking religious turn, French investigators say

Authorities investigating the truck driver who killed 84 people in a Bastille Day attack painted a complex picture Monday of a man who did not seem devout but had recently become interested in jihadi violence and researched past attacks in France and the United States, including one on a gay nightclub in Orlando.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, who oversees terrorism investigations, said by all accounts Mohamed Lahouaiyej Bouhlel drank, took drugs, ate pork and had an “unbridled sex life”. But his computer and phone showed recent online searches relating to IS and other jihadi groups.

“A search of his computer illustrates a clear ... and recent interest in radical jihadism,” Molins said, adding that Bouhlel had recently grown a beard and told people it was for religious reasons. While officials have said the attack was obviously premeditated, they have not found any evidence that Bouhlel had coordinated with an extremist network.

Internet searches on Bouhlel’s computer included Islamic propaganda chants, the terms “horrible deadly accidents,” and the recent attacks against the gay nightclub in Orlando, police officers in Dallas, and the killing of two police officials in Magnanville, outside of Paris.

One witness told authorities that Bouhlel seemed accustomed to looking at decapitation videos, Molins said.

As investigators continue to look into the attacker’s motives, his uncle in Tunisia, Sadok Bouhlesaid his nephew had been indoctrinated about two weeks ago by an Algerian member of the Islamic State group in Nice. He said Bouhlel’s family problems — he was estranged from his wife and three children — made him easy prey for the Algerian recruiter.