An undercover NYPD cop monitoring Instagram snared a would-be ISIS sympathizer in Texas, chatting him up online and steering him to two more undercovers who the suspect provided bomb-making materials to, according to the feds.
The suspect, 21-year-old John Michael Garza, was arrested by the feds on Dec. 22 and charged with attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
The undercover first came across Garza in October, after noticing his Instagram account followed pro-ISIS accounts and published a comment under a pro-ISIS post, according to federal prosecutors in Texas.
The undercover reached out and struck up a conversation through Instagram messages with Garza, who chatted with the cop about jihad, support for ISIS, and a dream of one day becoming a suicide bomber, according to a federal complaint.
Garza sent small amounts of cash to the undercover through a crypto wallet, beleiving the officer was an ISIS fighter in Iraq, according to prosecutors.
In December, when the undercover asked if Garza would help a “brother” in the U.S. make a bomb, the wannabe terrorist agreed, the feds allege, leading to his arrest. He faces a maximum 20-year federal prison term.
“The NYPD remains committed to identifying, disrupting, and dismantling these networks at their source — before they can reach their murderous ends,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement.
Garza, who the feds describe as a U.S. citizen and Mexican-American, lives in Midlothian, Tex., about 25 miles southwest of Dallas.
The NYPD undercover started chatting him up on Oct. 13, telling him that he reached out because they “had mutual brothers in common,” according to the criminal complaint.
The conversation turned to ISIS and Garza told the undercover, “Jihad is the way,” according to the feds. The cop suggested they take their conversation to WhatsApp and the next day Garza signed up for an account, according to the criminal complaint.
Garza shared ISIS media releases with the undercover and as their talks online progressed the cop described himself as an ISIS fighter based out of Baghdad and Mosul, training with a group of fellow jihadis but short on equipment, according to the complaint.
Garza on Nov. 13 sent the cop a video of a suicide bomber along with the words “my dream akhi (my brother),” and explained in follow-up messages, “Yes brother I always dreamed of this” and “I want paradise from this brother and killing the enemies of Allah while being a quick death is beautiful.”
A week later, the undercover told Garza he had set up a crypto wallet so Garza could send him money, the complaint says. And Garza obliged, allegedly sending him $20 through a newly-opened Coinbase account.
When the undercover mentioned buying explosives, Garza messaged, “I can make a shrapnel explosive? based off videos he watched — and that’s when their communications escalated to talks of bomb making, the feds allege.
On Nov. 27, just three days after buying a Honda Civic and driving it home, Garza boasted he’d “make so many bombs” for a car bomb attack on police officers, the feds allege.
Then, on Dec. 5, the undercover asked if Garza would be willing to get explosive components for a “brother” in the U.S. — a second undercover officer — and teach that person how to make a bomb, according to the complaint.
Garza agreed but said, “I’m a little scared … like what if he is fake and a cop,” according to the complaint against him.
After the undercover NYPD cop told him several times he shouldn’t do anything he didn’t want to do, Garza allegedly started buying the ingredients he needed. The plan was to meet the second undercover at a park in Dallas on Dec. 22 but scheduling problems wound up scuttling that meeting, the feds say.
So Garza agreed to meet yet another “brother” — an undercover FBI agent — near a Walmart about 8 p.m. that evening.
Once there, they traded a secret phrase, “green bird,” and Garza allegedly handed the agent a bottle of acetone, hydrogen peroxide and sulfuric acid, offering to send the agent a video showing how to use them to make a bomb.
Forty minutes later, the feds arrested Garza at his home and a search turned up a detonator, the feds say.
Garza told the FBI he bought the chemicals to treat wounds and clean drains and pipes, referred to the detonator as a scooper for flinging dirt, and lawyered up when authorities started asking more pressing questions, the complaint says.
Garza was ordered held pending a bail hearing in Northern District of Texas Federal Court Tuesday afternoon.
His lawyer did not return a message seeking comment.
