Federal prosecutors say the FBI has broken up an ISIS-linked network stretching from Michigan to New Jersey, charging several young men in a coordinated investigation that allegedly involved plans for a Halloween mass shooting and efforts to join the Islamic State abroad.
Tomas Jimenez-Guzel, 19, of Montclair, New Jersey, and Saed Mirreh, 19, of Kent, Washington, were arrested this week in a New Jersey case tied to others already charged in Michigan.
The Justice Department announced the new charges Wednesday, calling the probe a “sprawling federal investigation” into extremists who used encrypted messaging to communicate. U.S. Attorney Alina Habba said the New Jersey defendants “had pledged themselves to ISIS” and were in “frequent communication with the Michigan cell.”
“We will continue to move swiftly and decisively whenever terrorism or hate threatens our communities,” Habba said Friday. “The threat of terrorism is real when Americans are threatened. We respond fast, focused and together.”
A 93-page complaint filed Nov. 5 in the Eastern District of Michigan charges Ayob Asamil Nasser and brothers Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS. Prosecutors say the trio stockpiled AR-15-style rifles, shotguns, handguns and about 1,680 rounds of ammunition, referring to their plan as “pumpkin,” code for a Halloween day attack. Also charged is Milo Sedarat, 21, of New Jersey.
Agents say they trained at Detroit-area ranges, shared ISIS propaganda and discussed targeting LGBTQ bars in Ferndale and a Jewish center. During the Oct. 31 raids, the FBI seized tactical vests, GoPro cameras and magazines from homes and a U-Haul storage unit.
In Newark, Jimenez-Guzel and Mirreh face charges of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, The Associated Press reported. Jimenez-Guzel also faces an attempt count after agents arrested him Tuesday at Newark Liberty International Airport as he allegedly tried to fly to Turkey on his way to Syria.
Court filings cited by the AP say their travel plans “picked up speed after the Oct. 31 arrests” of several Michigan suspects “with whom they had been communicating.”
“We will not stop. We will follow the tentacles where they lead,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. said in Detroit.
FBI Detroit Special Agent Jennifer Runyan said her team will “continue to investigate, arrest and disrupt all attempts or plots to do harm … to defend the homeland.” Habba praised cooperation between the Michigan and New Jersey offices as “a model of coordination against extremist threats.”
Both complaints describe encrypted WhatsApp chats called “Muslimeen,” where suspects allegedly shared ISIS materials, arranged firearms training and discussed the “pumpkin” timeline. Officials believe the two groups were part of a single network, some planning domestic attacks and others seeking to join ISIS abroad.
The Michigan defendants remain in custody in Detroit; Jimenez-Guzel and Mirreh appeared in courts in Newark and Seattle.
All face charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and additional juvenile cases may be under seal.
