MONTCLAIR, NJ- Another domino has fallen in the foiled ISIS-inspired terrorist plot uncovered last week in Michigan, The New York Post reports.
Milo Sedarat, son of Iranian-American poet Roger Sedarat, was arrested in Montclair, New Jersey, a city located about 20 miles west-northwest of New York City, in connection with the scheme, sources told The Post. Roger Sedarat is a professor at Queens College in New York City.
Another Montclair teen, Tomas Kaan Guzel, 19, was also arrested, police said. Authorities found ISIS-inspired propaganda on Guzel’s phone, including a statement he made online where he was plotting to conduct a “Boston bombing-like attack.” The two ISIS wanna-be’s were picked up as part of a joint investigation by the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau and the FBI.
The plot was uncovered in Detroit and was planned to emulate the 2015 Paris ISIS attack, sources told The Post.
Guzel was actually picked up in a food court at Newark Liberty International Airport, with authorities saying he was waiting for a flight to Turkey in hopes of eventually reaching Syria to train with ISIS. He was initially set to go on Nov. 17, but moved the date up after news of the Detroit raids broke, officials said. His planned flight was scheduled to take off early Wednesday.
The city where they reside, Montclair, is an upscale community where, according to The Post, homes under $1 million are rare. For example, Governor-elect of the people Mikie Sherrill and her banker husband call Montclair home.
According to a neighbor, the streets to the neighborhood were sealed off for hours as investigators combed the Sedarat home.
He described the agents as heavily equipped, carrying camouflage tactical gear and assault rifles. Unsurprisingly, in liberal Montclair, neighbors took to leaving flowers and “condolences” on the Sedarat home, with some expressing “shock” over the arrest and its connection to a terrorist plot.
“They’re good kids,” said one woman who smartly refused to give her name, likely out of fear she’d be defined as a terrorist sympathizer. Some neighbors called the Sedarats “good neighbors” and a “good family.”
Two days earlier, two Michigan men were arrested and charged with supplying weapons for the ISIS-inspired attack plan, which was to target LGBTQ-friendly bars in Detroit. Mohmed Ali, 20, was identified as one of the main co-conspirators in the plot, which was to take place on Halloween night, prosecutors said.
The Post reported that the criminal complaint refers to five unidentified co-conspirators and a minor labeled “Person 1,” the latter who was assigned to carry out the attack with Ali, while the rest of the group was to make their way to join ISIS in Syria.
Before the wannabe terrorists could carry out their scheme, law enforcement authorities raided their homes and a storage unit rented by Ali in Inkster. Investigators recovered three AR-15-style rifles, two shotguns, four pistols, and more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition–as well as GoPro cameras, tactical vests, and additional gear.
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