NEW YORK - The FBI on Wednesday arrested a Bangladeshi man in a sting operation on charges he attempted to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank with what he believed was a 1,000-pound (450-kg) bomb, federal authorities said.
Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, faces charges of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to al-Qaida, the US Department of Justice said in a statement. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
The FBI said the public was not in danger because the explosives provided to Nafis were never in working condition and the suspect was closely monitored by the undercover agent - highlighting a script law enforcement has employed several times this year in similar cases, including one in Washington and another in Ohio.
"Attempting to destroy a landmark building and kill or maim untold numbers of innocent bystanders is about as serious as the imagination can conjure," said Mary Galligan, FBI acting assistant director-in-charge. "The defendant faces appropriately severe consequences."
In an initial appearance in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Nafis wore a plain brown crew-neck T-shirt, dark-colored jeans and sneakers. He barely spoke during the brief hearing, mumbling answers of "yes" to questions from US Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann.
According to the criminal complaint, Nafis traveled to the United States in January 2012. Once in New York, he claimed to be in contact with al-Qaida members overseas, although federal agents found no evidence that he was working for al-Qaida or that he was directed by the organization, according to a US official who declined to be named.
Nafis considered several targets for his attack, including the New York Stock Exchange and high-ranking government official, who the source identified as President Barack Obama.
In the end, Nafis decided to focus on the Federal Reserve Bank in lower Manhattan, according to the criminal complaint. To create a cell to help him carry out the bombing, Nafis began to seek out recruits, eventually bringing on board an undercover agent working for the FBI.
The two met on Wednesday morning and traveled by van to a New York warehouse, where Nafis assembled what he thought was a 1,000 pound bomb, before driving to the Federal Reserve bank, among the most secure and guarded buildings in Manhattan.
A couple of blocks from Wall Street, the bank stands like a limestone and sandstone fortress, sitting atop what is believed to be one of the world's largest stockpiles of gold.
After parking near the bank, Nafis walked to a nearby hotel and recorded a video statement in which he said, "We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom," according to the FBI.
Nafis was arrested in the hotel as he repeatedly attempted to detonate the inert bomb, the FBI said.
Other FBI sting operations this year have netted American and foreign suspects.
In February, a 29-year-old Moroccan man was arrested near the US Capitol wearing a vest he believed was full of al Qaeda-supplied explosives, and charged in an attempted suicide bombing of Congress.
Five self-described anarchists in the Cleveland area were arrested in May and accused of plotting to blow up a four-lane highway bridge. An undercover FBI agent had sold the men inoperable detonators and plastic explosives.