San Bernardino Terror Conspirator To Plead Guilty

The man accused of buying and supplying the semi-automatic rifles used to murder 14 people and injure 22 others in the San Bernardino terrorist attack has agreed to plead guilty, KFI NEWS has learned.

Enrique Marquez, Jr. will admit to one federal count each of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and making false statements on gun purchase forms, according to a plea agreement to be filed in U.S. District Court Tuesday.

Prosecutors will dismiss other counts, including visa fraud for his alleged participation in a sham marriage, according to senior federal law enforcement sources. 

He could face a statutory maximum term of up to 25 years in prison when he’s sentenced later this year.

Marquez has been held without bail since December, 2015, when he was arrested after spending several days with federal agents at a hotel — detailing his role in a failed 2011 plot with one of the San Bernardino killers to attack Riverside Community College and motorists on the 91 Freeway, according to court documents.

Federal prosecutors told a judge in Riverside in 2015 Marquez posed a threat to society because he’d provided guns and explosive powder to mass killers Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik.

“This is the most serious, most dangerous type of case that Mr. Marquez could face, other than direct participation,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher D. Griggs said at a bail hearing.

“The plotting was real, the arming of Mr. Farook happened, and the San Bernardino attack was the result,” Griggs said.

The head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Eileen Decker, has said there was no evidence that Marquez either knew in advance of or participated in the attack.

“His prior purchase of the firearms and ongoing failure to warn authorities about Farook’s intent to commit mass murder had fatal consequences,” Decker said in a prepared statement in 2015.

Authorities had initially suspected Marquez knew something in advance, in part, because of a short message posted to Facebook immediately after the attack.

“I’m. Very sorry sguys. It was a pleasure,” the message said.

— Eric Leonard (@LeonardFiles)


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