By Allan Lengel
DETROIT — Two men arrested Friday in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit, during FBI raids involving suspected terrorism “traveled together to scout potential attack target locations” in Ferndale, just outside Detroit, according to an FBI affidavit filed Saturday in federal court.
Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud are named in the affidavit as the two suspects. They face charges of receiving and transferring, and attempting and conspiring to transfer, firearms and ammunition to commit terrorism.
The court document alleges: “Based on my investigation in this case, this information is consistent with Person 1, Ali, and Mahmoud scouting possible LGBTQ+-friendly attack locations in Ferndale.”
The FBI affidavit states that Ali, Mahmoud, and other “co-conspirators” communicated with each other and with individuals “who separately indicated that they have knowledge of the potential attack plans and related information,” in addition to meeting in person.
The court document alleges that “they used online encrypted communications and social media applications to share extremist and ISIS-related materials that encourage attacks similar to what they planned.”
“This newly unsealed complaint reveals a major ISIS-linked terror plot with multiple subjects arrested in the Eastern District of Michigan targeting the United States,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a statement. “According to the complaint, subjects had multiple AR-15 rifles, tactical gear,
and a detailed plan to carry out an attack on American soil… This plot was stopped before innocent lives were lost.”
Five people, ages 16 to 20, were detained in FBI raids in Dearborn and Inkster on Friday. Three were arrested and two released.
Tresa Baldas of the Detroit Free Press writes:
“The defendants have been described by one defense lawyer as video gamers and recreational gun enthusiasts who were engaged in puffery, nothing more.”
The affidavit alleges that Ali and Mahmoud recently purchased AR-15-style rifles and that Mahmoud bought more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition that could be used by both men.
The two practiced shooting at a gun range.
The affidavit says the two “have met on other occasions recently, including at parks or in Dearborn on multiple nights in October.”
The FBI agent also wrote in the affidavit that Ali, Mahmoud, and other co-conspirators used encrypted online communications and social media applications to “share extremist and ISIS-related materials that encourage attacks similar to what they planned.”
“Further, Person 1 and Ali discussed when to conduct their attack, which they appeared to set for Halloween, and they sought guidance from the father of a local Islamic extremist ideologue on this question.”
The affidavit said FBI agents executing search warrants on Friday recovered three AR-15-style rifles, two shotguns, four handguns, more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition compatible with the AR-15 rifles, optical sights, two GoPro cameras, a flash suppressor, tactical vests, and other related firearms parts.
In a storage unit rented by Ali and visited by Mahmoud, the affidavit says, agents recovered two more chest-rig vests, two black tactical backpacks, and 24 empty magazines compatible with the three AR-15-style rifles.
Dearborn attorney Amir Makled told Baldas of the Free Press over the weekend that the group’s recreational gun activity and internet communications put them on the FBI’s radar but insisted the suspects were merely “gamers” who talked tough on social media and had no plans to harm anyone.
“These kids are gamers. Gamers are weird in the way they talk to each other,” Makled told the Free Press following a jail visit with his client on Saturday.
“There is nothing here,” Makled said. “What the FBI did was jump the gun.”
