Two New Jersey teenagers have been arrested in connection with an alleged ISIS-inspired attack that the FBI said it prevented in Michigan on Halloween, according to a report.
Tomas Kaan Guzel and Milo Sedarat, both 19, were arrested following the foiled plot. Guzel was stopped by NYPD officers and FBI agents just before he attempted to board a flight to Istanbul, ABC News reported. Meanwhile, Sedarat was arrested at his father’s home in Montclair, sources told The New York Post.
Sedarat is the son of the award-winning Iranian-American poet Roger Sedarat, according to The Post.
Two other men, Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud, were arrested on Friday for their alleged roles in the plot, according to the report.
The group is accused of using “online encrypted communications and social media applications to share extremist and ISIS-related materials,” and reportedly used the phrase “pumpkin day” when talking about their planned Halloween attack, according to court documents viewed by ABC.
An undercover NYPD officer had been monitoring Guzel as he communicated with those arrested in Michigan and others overseas. The group was allegedly discussing an attack on the LGBTQ+ community in Detroit and was mulling traveling to Syria to train with ISIS, the sources told ABC.
The attack was intended to copy the 2015 Paris ISIS attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris and in the city’s northern suburb, Saint-Denis, sources told The Post.
Guzel reportedly pushed forward his flight to Turkey and onward to Syria after last week’s arrests, but got caught, according to the TV network.
Authorities arrested him in a food court in Terminal B of Newark Liberty International Airport, according to The Post.
Both men were set to be charged in New Jersey federal court on Wednesday.
