Flemming Drejer, operative head of Denmark's Security and Intelligence Service said that Denmark was not changing the terror threat level, which has been at "serious," the second-highest level, since 2010.
He added that the case had "threads abroad" and "was related to criminal gangs," singling out the banned gang Loyal to Familia.
In January 2020, a Danish court upheld a police ban on the gang, saying that the LTF should be dissolved as illegal under Denmark's constitution.
The gang had been behind gang feuds, violence, robberies, extortion and drug sales in the Danish capital and "had used violence and illegal means to achieve its goal," the Copenhagen District Court said then.
In September 2018, police in Denmark issued a temporary ban against the LTF and said anyone seen wearing its logo could face prosecution.
"Persons abroad have been charged," he said.
"It is a serious situation," Drejer told a press conference, adding the arrests were "carried out in close collaboration with our foreign partners" and said those arrested were part of "a network".
Drejer added that the suspects would face a custody hearing within 24 hours, likely behind "double closed doors," meaning that he could not give details about the case, any target or motive.
"This is extremely serious," Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a European Union summit in Brussels.
"It shows the situation we are in in Denmark. Unfortunately."
"It is absolutely true when both (Denmark's intelligence agencies) say that there is a high risk in Denmark," Frederiksen said.
"It is of course completely unacceptable in relation to Israel and Gaza, that there is someone who takes a conflict somewhere else in the world into Danish society."
Earlier this month, the European Union's home affairs commissioner, Ylva Johansson, warned that Europe faces a "huge risk of terrorist attacks" over the Christmas holiday period due to the fallout from the war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
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