Federal authorities have arrested two more men in connection with a thwarted Halloween terror plot targeting LGBT nightclubs in Michigan, according to a law enforcement source. Tomas Kaan Jimenez-Guzal and Milo Sederat were arrested Tuesday, and additional accomplices are still under investigation, with more arrests possible. The NYPD’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau played a role in their capture, as reported by NBC News.
On Monday, federal prosecutors announced charges against Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud, both 20 and from Dearborn, Michigan, for their alleged roles in the plot. The suspects are accused of stockpiling guns and ammunition, practicing shooting, and scouting a strip of LGBT nightclubs in Ferndale as potential targets, according to a federal criminal complaint.
The alleged plot, code-named ‘pumpkin,’ was inspired by the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, and the Bataclan attack in Paris, France. The FBI executed search warrants on the homes of Ali and Mahmoud and a storage unit they shared, seizing multiple semiautomatic rifles, a shotgun, handguns, tactical gear, and over 1,600 rounds of 5.56 ammunition. Ali and Mahmoud are being held without bail until at least Monday, when they are due in federal court in Detroit for detention hearings.
Court dates for Jimenez-Guzal and Sederat were not immediately clear. The ongoing investigation highlights the FBI’s intensified efforts to combat ISIS-linked terrorism, with the Halloween plot symbolizing a growing threat to communal spaces and LGBTQ+ communities. Law enforcement agencies remain vigilant as they continue to dismantle networks that seek to perpetuate violence in the name of extremism.