Four charged with bomb and gun plot to attack Muslim community of Islamberg in New York

Accused: Vincent Vetromile, 19, Andrew Crysel, 18, were among four charged
David Gardner23 January 2019

Three young men and a 16-year-old boy have been charged with a bomb and gun plot to attack a rural Muslim community in New York state called Islamberg.

Three home-made bombs packed with black powder, ball bearings and nails were found at the teenage boy’s home in Greece, in the north of the state, and detectives also seized 23 firearms.

The group had allegedly targeted Islamberg, a settlement of mostly African-American Muslims that was founded by a Pakistani Sufi cleric in the Eighties to escape crime and overcrowding in cities.

The three men — Andrew Crysel, 18, Vincent Vetromile, 19, and Brian Colaneri, 20 — were appearing in court today charged with criminal possession of a weapon and conspiracy.

Brian Colaneri, 20, and a 16-year-old boy were also charged

The 16-year-old, who cannot be named because he is being prosecuted as a juvenile, is facing the same charges.

Police said at least three of the suspects had been enrolled together as boy scouts.

“They had a plan in place,” said Greece police chief Patrick Phelan. “If they had carried out this plot, which every indication is that they were going to, people would have died. I don’t know how many and who, but people would have died.”

Far-Right conspiracy theorists have claimed the gated settlement of Islamberg, 350 miles north-west of New York City, is a terrorist training compound for Islamist militants but authorities have dismissed the rumours.

Local residents have described their neighbours in Islamberg, which has about 200 people and is run by the Muslims of America group, as peaceful and friendly.

Police swooped to arrest the four after the 16-year-old, a student at Greece’s Odyssey Academy, showed classmates a photo on his phone and remarked: “He looks like the next school shooter, doesn’t he?”

An alarmed student reported the Friday lunchtime conversation to school officials, who called police.

“The kid who said something saved people’s lives... nobody’s dead and that’s a good story,” police chief Phelan said.

Some of the seized guns were owned by the alleged plotters and others by their relatives, and they were all apparently legally held.

In 2017, Robert Doggart, from Tennessee, was jailed for plotting to burn down a mosque, a school and a community centre in Islamberg.

He was accused of recruiting 10 other men to join his attack on the enclave.

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