An Afghan national was arrested and charged with acquiring weapons and planning an ISIS-inspired attack on election day, the Justice Department said.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a 27-year-old resident of Oklahoma City, was arrested by FBI agents alongside a juvenile co-conspirator and charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to acquire firearms for use in the attack.
The co-conspirator was not named in the criminal complaint, but prosecutors identified him as Tawhedi’s brother-in-law. He was also born in Afghanistan and resided in Moore, Oklahoma.
Prosecutors said Tawhedi began liquidating his assets—including a house in Moore, Oklahoma, two vehicles, furniture, and other pieces of personal property. He purchased one-way plane tickets back to Afghanistan to relocate his family before the attack.
Tawhedi and his co-conspirator were arrested on October 7 after trying to purchase two AK-47 rifles and 10 magazines of ammunition.
Tawhedi told FBI agents he planned to target “large gatherings of people” on Election Day. Both would-be terrorists told the agents they expected to be “martyred” in the attack.
