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A homeless Florida man accused of plotting a bomb attack on the New York Stock Exchange was arrested on Wednesday (November 20), NBC News reports.
Harun Abdul-Malik Yener was charged with attempted use of an explosive to damage or destroy any building used in interstate or foreign commerce. FBI agents received a tip that Yener was storing bomb-making schematics in a storage unit in Coral Springs, which they were granted permission to search in early March.
Spiral-bound notebooks with drawing of land mines, explosives, missiles and other improvised explosive devices were reportedly found during the search. Yener claimed that he was creating "rockets" with very "volatile" chemical mixtures capable of exploding if not mixed correctly, according to the complaint.
The suspect also claimed he was recruited by ISIS via Facebook Messenger but declined as he believed the terrorist group wouldn't achieve its objectives.
“I am just waiting for some kind of hole to open up and I can go, ah, there it is—I’ll know it when I see it,” Yener told FBI agents during the interview.
Agents returned with a search warrant days later and found “bombmaking sketches, numerous watches with timers, electronic circuit boards, and other electronics" that "could be used for constructing explosive devices," the complaint states. Undercover FBI agents later made contact with Yener and pitched a plot to carry out an attack, monitoring his actions throughout the summer and fall before he asked an undercover agent to drive him to Walmart for items and tools needed to construct an improvised explosive device in October, at which point he told the undercover agent that he was targeting the New York Stock Exchange.
“There is one place that would be hella easy...the stock exchange, that would be a great hit," Yener said, according to the complaint. "Tons of people would support it. They would see it and think dude, this guy makes sense, they are...robbing us. So that’s perfect.”
Days later, Yener told a group of undercover FBI agents that he planned to target the NYSE one week before Thanksgiving, claiming he wanted to send a statement to a news station in order to explain his objectives, recording a series of audio with assistance from an undercover agent that he intended to send to NBC News either on the day of the bombing or the following day.
“What you’ve just witnessed at the Stock Exchange...was just the beginning of a new era. A new revolution," he said on a recording, according to the complaint.
"We ask and encourage others to follow suit in their pursuit for change," he added.