According to our media partner, WBAL-TV:
Authorities said an individual has been arrested in the Baltimore area for plotting to blow up a military recruitment center.
11 News I-Team reporter Jayne Miller said that, according to a source familiar with the investigation, the man arrested is a U.S. national of Nicaraguan descent who is a recent convert to Islam.
The suspect will appear in court at 2 p.m.The bomb plot, the source said, was real, but the culprit was dealing with undercover agents, so the bomb itself was phony, Miller reported.
The target, the source said, was a military recruiting center in a shopping center in Catonsville, Miller reported. It’s called the Armed Forces Career Center. The suspect allegedly wanted to blow up a recruiting center to harm military personnel.
The arrest apparently came after the culprit attempted to detonate the bomb that, again, was fake, Miller reported.Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Baltimore, confirmed to The Associated Press that an arrest has been made and said the individual would appear in court Wednesday afternoon. Murphy did not provide any further details.
An FBI spokesman also confirmed the arrest.
The case is similar to a bomb plot in Oregon on the day after Thanksgiving.
In that case, a 19-year-old tried to set off a car bomb during a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, Ore. The FBI supplied the fake bomb.
