A former Michigan Army National Guard member was arrested for allegedly planning a mass shooting at a military base on behalf of the Islamic State terrorist group, the Justice Department announced Wednesday.
Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, 19, was taken into custody Tuesday after he traveled to an area near the U.S. Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) facility at the Detroit Arsenal in Warren, Michigan, and “launched his drone in support of the attack plan,” officials said.
“I recommend everyone have about seven magazines because you don’t want to be in there and run out of ammo,” Said allegedly told an undercover FBI agent in the leadup to the foiled plot, according to a criminal complaint.
Said is now facing charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and distributing information related to a destructive device. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years per count if convicted.
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“This defendant is charged with planning a deadly attack on a U.S. military base here at home for ISIS,” Sue J. Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement. “Thanks to the tireless efforts of law enforcement, we foiled the attack before lives were lost. We will not hesitate to bring the full force of the Department to find and prosecute those who seek to harm our men and women in the military and to protect all Americans.”
The Justice Department said that in April, “two undercover officers indicated they intended to carry out Said’s plan at the direction of ISIS” and “in response, Said provided material assistance to the attack plan, including providing armor-piercing ammunition and magazines for the attack, flying his drone over TACOM to conduct operational reconnaissance, training the undercover employees on firearms and the construction of Molotov cocktails for use during the attack, and planning numerous details of the attack including how to enter TACOM and which building to target.”
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The criminal complaint stated that around June 2024, Said started communicating with an undercover FBI agent whom he had thought was a fellow ISIS supporter.
“During the course of their interactions, which were audio- and/or video-recorded, Said described his longstanding desire to engage in violent jihad, either by traveling to ISIS-held territory abroad or by carrying out an attack in the United States,” the complaint said.
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“On July 18, 2024, FBI agents executed a search warrant for Said’s iPhone by performing a covert search of that device… when SAID provided it to personnel with the Michigan Army National Guard prior to boarding a military aircraft. During that search, FBI agents identified a Facebook message exchange (in Arabic) that took place on or about October 5, 2023, between Said and another Facebook user located in the Palestinian territories,” the complaint continued.
“In that Facebook message exchange, Said stated, ‘I want to go for Jihad,’ and the other Facebook user replied, ‘Talk to me on Telegram.’ Agents also determined during the search that Said was a member of multiple channels in the encrypted messaging application Telegram, one of which contained videos and images with ISIS flags,” it also said.
The complaint noted that Said enlisted in the Michigan Army National Guard in September 2022 and attended basic training at Fort Moore in Georgia. He later reported to the Michigan Army National Guard Taylor Armory before being discharged around December 2024.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is leading the investigation into the case.
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