Copyright NBC10 Boston
A 19-year-old man from the Seattle area has been arrested in a foiled Michigan terror attack, the eighth such arrest in the alleged plot for Halloween weekend. Saed Ali Mirreh, 19, of Kent, Washington, was arrested Wednesday by the FBI. Officials say he was in communication with seven other alleged ISIS supporters who have been arrested in the case. He, along with co-conspirator Tomas-Kaan Jimenez-Guzel, were each charged with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization — in this case ISIS — and one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, according to a complaint out of the U.S. District Court of New Jersey. An attorney listed for Mirreh did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Thus far, five individuals have been arrested in connection with the plot and effort to join ISIS in the Detroit area — Mohmed Ali, 20; Majed Mahmoud, 20; Ayob Nasser, 19; and two juveniles. They are charged with buying weapons and ammunition and scouting gay bars and an amusement park for a possible terror attack. A defense lawyer rejected the allegations. Two others, Tomas Kaan Jimenez-Guzel, 19; and Milo Sedarat, have been arrested in New Jersey. Sederat's lawyer declined to comment. Guzel's family and a lawyers also did not answer questions. Jimenez-Guzel and Mirreh, along with other co-conspirators, agreed to travel to Turkey in November and join ISIS as fighters, according to the federal complaint. The web of alleged conspirators stretched beyond the continent, according to the complaint, with at least six co-conspirators located primarily in the U.K. and Sweden. According to the FBI’s complaint, Mirreh and Jimenez-Guzel were going to travel Nov. 16 and 17 to Turkey, but once the arrests of the alleged suspects in Michigan went public, both “accelerated their travel plans,” the FBI said. Jimenez-Guzel was arrested at Newark airport in the food court Tuesday while attempting to travel to Turkey, according to court documents. On a recorded call Friday, Jimenez-Guzel told a “FBI confidential human source” that he was aware of the arrests, that their names are listed in charging documents in Michigan and that they needed to skip town as soon as possible, officials said. Prosecutors said that on that call Jimenez-Guzel, allegedly said: “The feds are gonna be looking for us in a week maybe, so we are leaving today or tomorrow … we are leaving, akhi, immediately … we have a new ticket, we got one today … we are all leaving soon … five of us are in the article and the feds ... they’re gonna be looking for us soon. IF we don’t leave, we are cooked.” Communications between Jimenez-Guzel and Mirreh included a photo of Jimenez-Guzel “in front of the ISIS flag while holding a knife” and a photo of Mirreh wearing an ISIS hat, according to the complaint. Mirreh allegedly told the FBI that he had planned to travel to Syria for the purpose of joining ISIS as a fighter, the complaint said. Mirreh was previously the subject of a counter-terrorism probe in 2023, when he was a minor, according to the complaint. In that case, he allegedly discussed conducting attacks on behalf of ISIS with an individual in Canada, officials said. That person in Canada has since been arrested. At the time, Mirreh was interviewed by the FBI and admitted to sending messages to others about the potential attack and admitted to consuming ISIS propaganda, but denied “intending” to carry out an attack, the complaint said. This July, the FBI said it received additional information since his 2023 and 2024 interviews that indicated Mirreh was continuing to talk to pro-ISIS extremists online. The FBI issued emergency disclosure requests to Meta in June for communications on Instagram by him. The FBI said it found Mirreh was “in direct communication with at least three known overseas ISIS supporters and a participant in conversations pertaining to jihad against the ‘kuffar [non-believers]’ martyrdom, violence against Jewish people, purchasing plane tickets to travel overseas and training at gun ranges,” the complaint said. The complaint also detailed the alleged contact between Jimenez-Guzel and the individuals identified as co-conspirators in the U.K. and Sweden about joining ISIS starting in July. Rebecca Weiner, NYPD's deputy commissioner for intelligence and counterterrorism, underscored the seriousness of the cases, saying Thursday, “this was the real deal, and we were really concerned.” Weiner says that the people allegedly involved in the plot come from all sorts of backgrounds, including some from well-off families. "Associations that start off in the digital realm are transferring into the physical realm, which just makes it a lot easier to coordinate these kinds of plans. In this case, waves of travellers looking to go overseas to support ISIS," Weiner said.
