A Manhattan man spent years plotting to detonate nail-studded bombs in
the city, but was nabbed before he could carry out a vicious attack,
officials said last night.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly
and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, announced last night that
Jose Pimentel was arrested on terrorism charges Saturday afternoon.
Bloomberg described Pimentel, 27, as a Dominican Republic native who
is now a U.S. citizen and a convert to Islam.
“The suspect was a
so-called ‘lone wolf,’ motivated by his own resentment of the presence
of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as inspired by al
Qaeda propaganda,” Bloomberg said.
His targets were police cars,
post offices, military members returning to the States and a Bayonne,
N.J., police station, Bloomberg said.
Officers were investigating
him since 2009, Kelly said. Pimentel moved to Washington Heights last
year, buying bomb ingredients from Home Depot, being careful to “avoid
raising red flags,” Kelly said.
Pimentel, who learned to create the
bombs from al Qaeda’s magazine article “How to Build a Bomb in the
Kitchen of Your Mom,” planned to test the bombs in mailboxes, Kelly
said.
Bloomberg said officers detonated a bomb like Pimentel’s —
showing a video of a parked car igniting into a fireball.
This brings
the total terrorist plots against New York to 14, Bloomberg said.
Vance
said Pimentel could face life in prison.
Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter @AlisonatMetro.
