Ankara- Police in Ankara on Friday seized a small arsenal of weapons buried in the grounds of a former anti-terrorism unit chief who was arrested on Wednesday and suspected of involvement in a possible coup plot, Turkish media reported

Using metal detectors and wearing forensic white uniforms, police scoured the grounds just outside the home of former Special Operations Unit head Ibrahim Sahin, discovering hand grenades, plastic explosives, heavy weapons and various types of ammunition.

NTV television reported that the weapons and explosives would be sent to Istanbul for examination.

More than 30 people were taken into custody Wednesday in the latest wave of arrests connected to a shadowy nationalist gang that prosecutors claim was conspiring to overthrow Turkey's moderate Islamic government.

In addition to Sahin those taken into custody included retired generals, serving military officers, academics and journalists.

The detentions appeared to have unnerved the Turkish military with Chief of General Staff Ilker Basbug on Thursday organizing an unscheduled meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday.

According to a short statement released after the meeting, the latest arrests were the subject of the meeting. No further information was given.

In the ongoing trial of 86 people previously arrested in connection to the case, prosecutors have claimed that the so-called Ergenekon gang had plans to carry out assassinations of political and social leaders, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, former chief of general staff Yasar Buyukanit and Nobel prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk.

The name Ergenekon refers to a mythic Turkic homeland.

It was through these assassinations and other types of destabilizing attacks that the group hoped to create the chaos necessary to provoke the military into launching a coup in 2009 in order to restore order.

Prosecutors at the trial have said that the staunchly secularist and nationalist group was angry at what they believe is the government's watering down of secular laws and its giving-up of national sovereignty in Turkey's bid to join the European Union.

Opposition figures have described the trial as a witch hunt carried out by the government as revenge for a failed attempt to have the ruling Justice and Development Party
(AKP) closed down or as a way to take attention away from its alleged attempts to undermine the secular state and implement sharia, or Islamic law. (dpa)