Afghan Man Arrested for Planning ISIS-Inspired Attack on Election Day: DOJ

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.

Tawhedi entered the country from Afghanistan on a special immigrant visa in September 2021. He has parole status as he awaits immigration proceedings, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday. He lived with his 24-year-old wife and one-year-old daughter in an Oklahoma City apartment.

The co-conspirator was not named in the criminal complaint, but investigators identified him as Tawhedi’s brother-in-law. He was also born in Afghanistan and resided in Moore, Oklahoma. He entered the U.S. in 2018, also on a special immigrant visa, and was a legal permanent resident, according to the complaint.

Investigators 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.

After searching his electronic devices, investigators found Tawhedi had an expansive digital library of ISIS texts and propaganda images, as well as access to pro-ISIS Telegram channels. Earlier this year, Tawhedi donated about $540 in cryptocurrency to an ISIS-linked charity in Syria. The group posted their wallet address in pro-ISIS Telegram channels, investigators said.

By August, he was in contact with a man going by the alias Abdul Malik, who was already investigated by the FBI. The agency determined he was involved in “recruitment, training, and indoctrinations of persons who expressed interest in terrorist activity.”

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In September, Tawhedi began communicating with Malik about purchasing firearms, selling off his assets, and getting his family to Afghanistan.

“Brother, we sold our house today,” Tawhedi told Malik in a message on Telegram, according to the criminal complaint. “We’ll receive money by the 15th of October, next month. After that we will begin our duty, God willing, with the help of God, we will get ready for election day.”

Tawhedi eventually sold his computers to a person identified in the complaint as an FBI informant, who federal agents called “a highly reliable source for the FBI for nearly nine years, with no handling concerns.” This person told Tawhedi that he was starting a firearms business, and eventually offered to sell him and his co-conspirator two AK-47 rifles.

In messages reviewed by federal investigators, Tawhedi told his alleged ISIS contact his family included his wife, their one-year-old daughter, his mother-in-law, three sisters-in-law, and two brothers-in-law—but not his father-in-law.

“We sold the house for $185,000.00,” Tawhedi told Malik in another message. “It was my father-in-law’s. We will take the money for our expenses, but my father in law is not aware of anything, because he won’t be coming and if there is any money left over, then we will give it, God willing.”

He also described his plans to purchase the rifles and ammunition from the person he sold his computers to. “We will buy just a few magazines from this guy so he doesn’t suspect us,” Tawhedi told Malik. “Magazines are sold everywhere, we will buy them elsewhere.”

Tawhedi and his co-conspirator met the FBI informant, as well as a second informant and an undercover agent for the deal on October 7. They were arrested after making the purchase of two AK-47 rifles and 10 magazines of ammunition.

In an interview with FBI agents after his arrest, Tawhedi reportedly said he planned to target “large gatherings of people” on Election Day. Both alleged would-be terrorists told the agents they expected to be “martyred” in the attack.