Halloween Terror Plot Targeted Oakland County Bars, LGBTQ-Friendly Clubs: Feds

DEARBORN, MI — Two Dearborn men were planning to attack multiple Oakland County bars and restaurants in support of the Islamic State, federal officials wrote in a criminal complaint.

Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud were each charged with receiving and transferring, and attempting and conspiring to transfer, firearms and ammunition to commit terrorism. Officials did not identify their ages. They are expected to appear in court on Monday afternoon.

Three other people were also arrested in the raids.

Officials said Ali and Mahmoud bought AR-15 rifles with tons of ammo and scouted multiple locations in Ferndale for a potential attack. Officials said the two were scouting locations along Woodward and 9 Mile Road, where there are many bars and clubs, some of which intentionally attract members of the LGBTQ+ community. Officials believe they were planning to carry out an attack over Halloween weekend.

"Based on my investigation in this case, this information is consistent with (the juvenile), Ali and Mahmoud scouting possible LGBTQ+-friendly attack locations in Ferndale," FBI Special Agent Nicholas Czech wrote in the complaint.

Officials said Ali and Mahmoud were participating in a violent group chat online. The encrypted group chat shared extremist and ISIS-related material that encouraged terror attacks over the past few months, officials said.

The group also met multiple times in and around Dearborn, officials said.

Ali and Mahmoud practiced shooting the firearms at Downriver Guns in Belleville, leading investigators to believe they were sharpening their skills for an attack, officials said.

"I know based on my training and experience that individuals plotting terrorist attacks may practice shooting firearms of the same or similar type that they intend to use during the attacks they intend to carry out," Czech wrote in the complaint.

A Michigan lawyer representing Ali and Mahmoud told the Associated Press that no terror attack was ever planned.

"If these young men were on forums that they should not have been on or things of that nature, then we'll have to wait and see," defense lawyer Amir Makled said before charges were announced. "But I don't believe that there's anything illegal about any of the activity they were doing."