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FBI in Dearborn on Friday (Photo: Rebecca Cook)
Two men arrested Friday in Dearborn during FBI raids involving suspected terrorism “traveled together to scout potential attack target locations in Ferndale,” 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 affidavit said that there was talk of a emulating a 2015 attack in France and pulling off an attack around Halloween.
“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.”
The two men made their initial appearance Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit and are being held pending a Nov. 10 hearing.
Mohmed Ali (left) at Downriver gun store in Sept. (Govt. photo)
The affidavit states that "an FBI undercover employee" (which is typically an agent) was a on a group call in September with someone overseas, but Ali and Mahmoud were not on the call.
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.”
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, and the affidavit says undercover FBI agents went to the range to observe some of the suspects in the case.
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 4x6x8 storage unit in Inkster 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.”
