A former U.S. Army infantryman with combat experience in Afghanistan was arrested Friday for planning to detonate an improvised explosive device (IED) at a political rally in Long Beach, California over the weekend — a terror plot federal officials said was designed to inflict “mass casualties” and avenge recent attacks against Muslims across the world.
Twenty-six-year-old Mark Steven Domingo, a resident of Reseda, California, received what he thought was a live bomb — but was actually inert — from an undercover FBI officer as part of a Joint Terrorism Task Force investigation, the Justice Department announced Monday.
“This investigation successfully disrupted a very real threat posed by a trained combat soldier who repeatedly stated he wanted to cause the maximum number of casualties,” U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Nick Hanna said Monday.
Federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint filed Saturday that charged Domingo with providing and trying to provide material support to terrorists. Domingo is to appear Monday afternoon in U.S. District Court to face charges.
The Afghanistan war veteran, according to a 30-page affidavit supporting the criminal complaint, asked an associate, who was in fact cooperating with the FBI, to find him a bomb-maker. According to the affidavit, Domingo purchased three-inch nails because “they would be long enough to penetrate the human body and puncture internal organs.” He gave the nails to the associate to be used in the bomb and then said the operation would go forward.
In one conversation described in court documents, the undercover FBI agent warned Domingo that he would probably be caught by authorities if he went ahead with his plan. “Martyrdom, bro,” Domingo replied, according to prosecutors.
On Friday, the undercover operative gave Domingo “multiple inert devices” that Domingo believed to be live bombs. When he headed to the Long Beach park where he planned to carry out his attack, Domingo was arrested by FBI agents.
Domingo had written online posts and said in conversations with an FBI source that he supported violent jihad. According to the Justice Department, Domingo wanted to “seek retribution” for attacks against Muslims. After the mass shooting at the mosques in New Zealand in March, Domingo wrote in a social media post that “there must be retribution.”
According to prosecutors, Domingo had declared his fidelity to Islam on Mar. 2.
The Justice Department release said that after that post, the undercover operative began to engage Domingo in online conversations and later met him in person. And Doming had spoken with the operative about possible targets — including Jewish people, police officers, churches and a military base, according to the affidavit.
