A man was charged Tuesday with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction on a Florida beach in the name of Islamic State.
Harlem Suarez, 23, of Key West, Fla., was a self-proclaimed follower of ISIS who authorities say planned to use a backpack nail-bomb to blow up a Key West beach in Florida.
“Specifically, Suarez discussed taking the bomb to a public beach, burying it in the sand, and then detonating the device remotely with the cell phone,” the criminal complaint reads. “Suarez also discussed putting bombs under police cars, in front of police officers’ homes, and possibly purchasing a vehicle and building a car bomb.”
In April, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began monitoring Suarez, also known as Almlak Benitez, because of his extremist Facebook posts that promoted ISIS.
According to the criminal complaint, the posts from Suarez’s account were, “Be a warrior, learn how to cut your enemies head and then burn down the body learn how to be the new future of the world Caliphate.”
He also said he wanted to “bring the Caliphate here” to America.
His Facebook likes included “Jihadist,” “Extraordinary Prayer for ISIS,” and “Prayers for ISIS: Weapons of our Warfare.”
An undercover agent contacted Suarez and began recording conversations with him both electronically and over the phone.
In one conversation, Suarez decided he wanted to make an ISIS recruitment video. He dictated a script to the undercover agent, and they later filmed the video. Here is that dictation of Suarez’ script, original errors included:
“I call to other brothers worldwide to creat Caliphate in the middle East. Destroy our enemies against us. Let live only who are our brothers and sisters. Send our mujahideen to a different soil with tanks, missiles, gemades, and other tactical needs. American soil is the past, we will destroy america and divide it in two, we will rais our black flag on top of your white house and any president on duty (cut head). There will be no one against us, the islamic state. No matter how many brothers of us they kill … or leaders, we always will have leaders for us to follow, they will never destroy the islamic state and Abu Bakr al Baghdady. we will keep going forward, how we are now on U.S. Soil, FLORIDA, NEWYORK, TEXAS, OHIO, CALIFORNIA, MICHIGAN, CANADA THERE is alot of us there, too. We are everywhere and we are not going to stop, until we create the caliphate and seek our enemy and kill them, where we find them.”
Authorities say Suarez obtained a dud bomb from an undercover agent Monday. The agent showed him how to use the device and then Suarez was arrested.
“There is no room for failure when it comes to investigating the potential use of a weapon of mass destruction,” Special Agent in Charge George Piro said in a statement. “The FBI and our local, state and federal partners work around the clock to prevent such catastrophic weapons from being used against our citizens. Even so, we ask the public to be vigilant and report suspicious activity to law enforcement.”
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