The FBI says it has foiled a terrorist plot with international connections to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Authorities have arrested three men and are seeking a fourth suspect. It's the second report of a terrorism plot disrupted in this country in the past month.
The FBI complaint alleges that Russell Defreitas, Abdul Kadir, Kareem Ibrahim and Abdel Nur wanted to attack the airport by planting explosives around fuel tanks and a pipeline.
The suspects had allegedly tapped into an international network of Muslim extremists from the United States, Guyana and Trinidad. The extremist group, called Jamaat al Muslimeen, was responsible for a bloody coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990.
The plot was in the earliest stages of planning — the suspects had not yet bought explosives, FBI officials in New York told NPR. The FBI said there was never any danger to the airport or the area around it because authorities had infiltrated the group when the plan was first hatched. One of the suspects had recruited an FBI informant.
The group had done surveillance of potential targets but it lacked the explosives to carry out the attack. But an FBI agent described the group as very determined and methodical.
Defreitas, an American citizen from Brooklyn had worked at JFK Airport's cargo area. Kadir, a citizen of Guyana, had been a mayor in that country and member of its parliament. Ibrahim was a citizen of Trinidad, where he is being held in custody. Nur, also of Guyana, remains at large.
Officials see no link between the JFK Airport plot and the arrests last month of suspects who allegedly planned to attack soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey.
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