Last spring and summer, at least eight members of the group departed for Damascus, the Syrian capital. Several enrolled at a Koranic school there.
Syria is popular with young European Muslims hoping to study religion or Arabic, because it is cheaper to live there than in Egypt or Saudi Arabia. Syria is also a hub of smugglers and operatives of the Iraq insurgency: a gateway to jihad. Koranic schools in Damascus have become steppingstones and cover stories for Iraq-bound militants.
The circumstances of Salah's departure are murky. It's not clear if his intended destination was Iraq. Investigators and friends say his parents gave him permission to travel to Damascus and study there. Salah went to Syria in July with neighbor Mohammed Ayouni, 22, whose whereabouts are also unknown.
"Somebody had to manipulate Salah, had to influence and help him," said Siddibe of Good Boys of Africa, which tries to steer teenagers away from crime, drugs and extremism. "A little guy like that is going to be a lot more vulnerable."
There have been reports that Salah tried to enter Iraq and was turned back by Syrian border authorities. But French law enforcement officials could not confirm that.
By the time he turned 14 in October, Salah had become streetwise in Damascus, say police, who describe his role in the cell as handling logistics for jihadis passing through from Paris.
Some think the authorities have exaggerated Salah's role.
"To call him an intermediary in Syria, and to call this a network, is to exaggerate what was a crude, improvised group with little structure or connections," said Vincent Ollivier, a defense lawyer.
But after French police arrested Thamer Bouchnak, a 22-year-old from Riquet, in January on the eve of a flight to Syria, he identified Salah as the operative expected to meet him at the Damascus airport and arrange for lodging, guns and passage to Iraq. Bouchnak spent three weeks at the Koranic school last summer and apparently had met Salah there.
"The kid was the one who knew where to find the smugglers to cross them into Iraq," said Many, Bouchnak's lawyer. "He was the one who was going to help them buy AK-47s."
Unlike five Dutch suspects in the Van Gogh case who allegedly trained at secret Pakistani and Afghan camps, the preparation in Paris was minimal: exercise sessions in the wooded Buttes-Chaumont Park, perfunctory consultation of weapons manuals.
