A sweep by Indonesia's counter-terrorism police Densus 88 netted 16 suspects allegedly involved in different terrorist plots, including an alleged plan to poison police officers.

Police believe one of the suspects has connections with the banned terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah -- a group with links to al-Qaida -- and in particular with a Jemaah Islamiyah leader called Dulmatin who was killed by police last year.

"From Thursday until last Sunday, we captured 16 individuals suspected of terrorism in various cases," Col. Boy Rafli Amar, National Police spokesman, said.

Police confiscated cyanide and pen guns, so called because they resemble writing utensils, Amar said.

Seven of those arrested were taken into custody in Jakarta. The other suspects were arrested in several provincial towns, a report in the Jakarta Globe newspaper said.

The men arrested in Jakarta were allegedly involved in a terror plot to poison police, Amar said. No further information was given by police.

However, the Globe reported that an unnamed police source said the seven arrested in Jakarta were a new terrorist network.

"So far they have not been involved in any other networks. They had only plotted to put cyanide in the food eaten by police officers," the source said.

In March last year police shot Dulmatin, a militant involved in the fatal 2002 Bali bomb attacks, while he was in an Internet kiosk in the Jakarta suburb of Pamulang City.

His death ended several years of frustration for Densus 88 in their hunt for Dulmatin, who was 40 and one of Indonesia's most wanted men. He was also known as Yahya, Mansur or Joko Pitono.

The United States had placed a $10 million reward for capture of the militant.

The Bali bombing in October 2002 was the deadliest act of terrorism in the history of Indonesia. More than three dozen Indonesians died and more than 150 of the 202 dead were foreigners, including 88 Australians. Around 240 people were injured.

It was the scale of the Bali bombings that was the driver for the government and national police to set up Densus, or Detachment, 88, whose main focus has been to hunt down cells of the Central Java Islamist movement Jemaah Islamiah.

In September 2009, a nine-year hunt for another of Indonesia's most wanted terrorist suspects ended after Noordin Mohammad Top, 41, was killed in a shootout with police in Surakarta. Noordin, like Dulmatin, was believed to be a leading member of Jemaah Islamiah.

Noordin was wanted for involved in the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton bombings in Jakarta in July 2009. The bombings were the first major incidents in Indonesia since August 2003, when the same Marriott hotel suffered a car-bomb attack leaving 12 people dead and 150 injured.

Densus 88 also has focused heavily on people with links to what they say is a rebel training camp discovered early last year in Aceh, an isolated province of 4.5 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra Island.

The trial continues of radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, 72, who was arrested last August for allegedly helping to finance the training camp.

State prosecutors claim Bashir is guilty of planning and persuading people to raise funds to support terrorism. Bashir also allegedly hindered the government's war against terrorism plan, given inconsistent testimonies in previous court hearings and has showed no regret for his actions.

Bashir could face a death sentence if convicted of terrorist-related activities, all of which he denies.

He previously served more than two years in jail before being cleared of involvement with the proscribed Jemaah Islamiah.

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