Thwarted Terrorist Attack In Tampa Planned By ISIS Member: FBI

TAMPA, FL — A 26-year-old Tampa man has pleaded guilty to purchasing guns and bomb-making materials he planned to use in one or more terrorist attacks in Tampa Bay on behalf of the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg said Friday that Muhammed Momtaz Al-Azhari pleaded guilty to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).

As part of his plea agreement, Al-Azhari agreed to a sentence of 18 years in federal prison and will forfeit all assets and gear traceable to his planned terror attacks on Tampa Bay.

Prior to the plea agreement, Al-Azhari faced a maximum penalty of 40 years in federal prison.

According to the FBI, Al-Azhari is a U.S. citizen who grew up in Brea and Garden Grove, California.
He and his father, Momtaz, visited Saudi Arabia in 2015, where Al-Azhari came to embrace Islamist/Salafist beliefs.

During their visit to Saudi Arabia, the father and son were arrested and convicted of planning to travel to Syria to participate in jihad and join Jaysh al-Islam, an armed Islamist terrorist group, to fight the Syrian government, authorities said.

Al-Azhari served three years in a Saudi Arabian prison before he was deported to the United States in December 2018. He lived with his grandmother in California for more than a year, then relocated with family members to Tampa in December 2018, where he attracted the attention of the FBI when he began posting pro-ISIS comments on social media.

Related:

• Tampa Man Indicted On Charges Of Planning ISIS Terrorist Attack
• Tampa Man Accused Of Planning ISIS Terrorist Attack On Tampa Bay
• Video: Woman Killed By Police Was Sister Of Accused Terrorist

Among the comments, Al-Azhari lauded the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando in which ISIS supporter Omar Mateen killed 49 people and wounded 53 others.

According to the FBI, in May 2019, Al-Azhari began frequenting ISIS propaganda sites and publicly pledged his allegiance to ISIS through a bay’ah (an Islamic oath of allegiance).

Furthermore, Al-Azhari spoke about avenging the United States’ imprisonment of Muslims, including ISIS fighters, and condemned the United States’ military actions in the Middle East.

The FBI said Al-Azhari also rehearsed statements that he would make during his terrorist attacks in support of ISIS, taping them on video.

Around April 2020, the FBI said Al-Azhari began purchasing guns in anticipation of carrying out a terrorist attack. He also researched and scouted potential locations in Tampa Bay to attack, including the FBI office in Tampa and the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.

Between late April and May 2020, Al-Azhari began communicating with an undercover FBI agent and a confidential informant and tried to buy guns, including a fully automatic rifle, but he was arrested on unrelated charges while negotiating the purchase.

After his arrest, Al-Azhari met with and tried to convert the undercover FBI agent to Islam and confided his affiliation with ISIS. He also told the undercover agent his plans to provide material support and money to ISIS, said the FBI.

Al-Azhari eventually recruited the undercover agent to help him carry out the terrorist attack and asked the agent to obtain a Glock pistol with a silencer for him.

FBI agents arrested Al-Azhari when he took possession of the Glock and silencer on May 24, 2020.

Two days after his arrest, Al-Azhari's 22-year-old sister, Heba Momtaz Al-Azhari, was shot to death after she attacked a Temple Terrace Police officer with a knife outside of Temple Terrace City Hall.

According to family members, she was distraught after learning about the charges against her brother.

The case was investigated by FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, including Homeland Security Investigations, the Tampa Police Department, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the St. Petersburg Police Department, the Clearwater Police Department and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.