Bayside Duo Arrested Trying To Buy Assault Rifles: Feds

BAYSIDE, QUEENS — A Bayside man who glorified attacks against Jewish communities and fantasized about a "racial holy war" was arrested with a neighbor Tuesday after buying assault rifles from an undercover FBI agent, according to federal law enforcement officials.

Bayside neighbors Joseph Miner, 29, and Daniel Jou, 40, stand accused of buying several firearms with defaced serial numbers, including two assault rifles.

Though the duo wasn't plotting a specific attack, Miner had discussed past attacks on Jewish communities online and praised the deadly stabbing at a rabbi's home in Rockland County during Hanukkah last year, calling it "exciting," according to a detention memo filed in Brooklyn federal court.

Prosecutors say Miner posted photos on Instagram that showed him giving Nazi salutes alongside captions that disparaged Jews, women and black people.

He also expressed suicidal thoughts and fantasized in Instagram messages about "martyring" himself or "forming a well trained incel hit squad," using a term that stands for "involuntary celibate," according to prosecutors.

"Miner has embraced an extremely violent ideology and contemplated committing acts of terrorism," U.S. Attorney Richard P. Donoghue wrote in a memo requesting that Miner be detained pending trial. "In his own social media postings, he has glorified acts of murder and terrorism against racial, ethnic and religious groups. More ominously, he has ruminated about engaging in such violent conduct himself."

Miner and Jou met the undercover FBI agent Tuesday in a hotel near LaGuardia Airport, where they spent more than $3,000 total to buy five guns and 220 rounds of ammunition, according to federal court records.

Two of the firearms were assault rifles with silencers and high-capacity magazines, and several were "ghost guns," meaning they have no serial numbers or other identifying markings.

As the men left the hotel room with their purchases, law enforcement officers arrested them on charges of receipt and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.

Jou has several sealed arrests on his criminal record, including one that is firearms-related, according to federal prosecutors.