Crime & Safety
Sailor Pleads Guilty To Plotting Attack On Great Lakes Navy Station
A former Navy sailor pleaded guilty to working with an Iranian military group to plan an attack on Naval Station Great Lakes in Chicago.
CHICAGO, IL — A former Navy sailor pleaded guilty to planning an attack on Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago on behalf of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to court records filed in the case, Xuanyu Harry Pang, 38, of North Chicago, spoke with someone in Colombia in 2021 about aiding with a plan involving Iranian actors to attack the U.S. to avenge the death of Quasem Soleimani. Soleimani was a general of the IRGC Quds Force who was killed by the U.S. military in 2020, according to the DOJ. The Quds Force is a branch of the IRGC that, "conducts unconventional warfare and intelligence activities outside of Iran."
A covert employee of the FBI posing as an affiliate of the Quds force made contact with the individual in Colombia, who put the employee in contact with Pang. At the time, Pang was stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes.
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"The pair communicated online through an encrypted messaging application about possible targets for the attack, including Naval Station Great Lakes and other locations in the Chicago area," the DOJ said in a statement.
Pang met with another covert FBI employee on three occasions in the fall of 2022, once in downtown Chicago and twice in Lake Bluff, to plan the attack. During the Lake bluff meetings, according to the DOJ, Pang showed the FBI employee photos and videos of multiple locations inside the Naval Station.
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According to the court documents, Pang also supplied two U.S. military uniforms for operatives to wear and a cell phone that could be used as a test for a detonator.
Pang was charged with conspiring to and attempting to willfully injure and destroy national defense material, national defense premises and national defense utilities, with intent to injure, interfere with, and obstruct the national defense of the U.S. He is currently detained and is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date.
Pang faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
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