US arrest four for plotting attack on New York Muslim community

NEW YORK: Local authorities Tuesday said that three men and a high school student were charged with plotting to attack a rural New York Muslim community named Islamberg with explosives.

The Rochester-area residents are accused of plotting to attack the small Muslim locality, according to court papers.

The timing of the attack was unknown. At the time of their weekend arrests, the men, had access to 23 rifles and shotguns and three home-made explosives, Police Chief Patrick Phelan said at a press conference.

He did not rule out the possibility of additional arrests.

Charged with weapons possession and conspiracy were 20-year-old Brian Colaneri, 18-year-old Andrew Crysel and 19-year-old Vincent Vetromile. A 16-year-old student at Odyssey Academy in Greece was charged as an adolescent offender.

It was a lunchroom comment by the student during school Friday that launched the investigation.

“He looks like the next school shooter, doesn’t he?” the student allegedly said while showing students a picture of another boy on his phone, according to police chief.

School security and Greece police interviewed both students and others and eventually “uncovered … a plot to attack an Islamic community in Delaware County, known as Islamberg,” Phelan said.

Police also searched five locations and seized 23 weapons and numerous electronic devices, including phones and computers. Most of the weapons were rifles and shotguns, some of which were legally owned by relatives of the suspects, authorities said.

Three improvised explosive devices wrapped in duct tape were found at the 16-year-old’s house.

“They were homemade bombs with various items – black powder, BBs, nails, inside a container,” Phelan said.

The rural community in Delaware County is operated by The Muslims of America, an indigenous American Muslim group based in the U.S., which runs 21 others in North America.

It was settled by followers of Pakistani Sufi Sheikh Mubarik Gilani. The mostly African-American settlers first came to the area in the 1980s to escape crime and crowding in New York City.