Investigators remove evidence from the home of Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis. Photo courtesy of NYPD.
A 21-year-old Queens man was arrested last week for an alleged attempt to bomb a major building in Manhattan’s financial district on behalf of middle-eastern terrorist organization al-Qaeda.
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, who lived in Jamaica, Queens, was arrested last Wednesday for supposedly attempting to bomb the New York Federal Reserve Bank on Liberty Street in lower Manhattan.
According to a release sent out by the NYPD’s Community Affairs Unit, Nafis believed that the bomb was 1,000 that he allegedly would have set off inside the bank and he now faces charges attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaeda.
The release says that according to the criminal complaint filed in Eastern District of New York, Nafis, who is of Bangladeshi decent, traveled to the United States this year to execute the alleged terrorist plot. While inside the U.S., the complaint says that Nafis tried to recruit people in order to form a terrorist cell inside the U.S. He also spoke to al-Qaeda contacts that were in the country so that they could help him carry out the alleged attack.
What Nafis did not realize, the release says, is that one of the people who he met with and was trying to recruit for the cell he was creating was actually an FBI source. Through that and other sources, FBI and NYPD detectives were able to track and eventually capture Nafis before he could carry out his plan.
The complaint also alleges that Nafis had several proposals for his attack, which included the New York Stock Exchange and a high ranking U.S official, but ultimately settled on the
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis. Photo courtesy of NYPD.
Federal Reserve Bank.
As for how Nafis was ultimately captured, the release says that he traveled in a van to a warehouse. Whist en route to the warehouse, he assembled what would be the bomb that would’ve gone off inside the reserve bank. After that they traveled to a hotel near the bank.There, Nafis recorded a video statement that would have claimed responsibility for the alleged attack. Then, while attempting to set the bomb off, agents from the FBI New York Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Nafis.
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly commended all that were involved in Nafis’ capture.
“Al Qaeda operatives and those they have inspired have tried time and again to make New York City their killing field. We are up to 15 plots and counting since 9/11 with the Federal Reserve now added to a list of iconic targets that previously included the Brooklyn Bridge, the New York Stock Exchange, and Citicorp Center,” Kelly said in a statement. “After 11 years without a successful attack, it’s understandable if the public becomes complacent. But that’s a luxury law enforcement can’t afford. Vigilance is our watchword now and into the foreseeable future.”
FBI Acting Assistant Director-In-Charge Mary Galligan said that Nafis faces severe punishment for his plan.
“Attempting to destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure,” Galligan said.
By Luis Gronda
