Sting operation nets suspect before he can hurl explosive at Miami-area Jewish center during Friday night services, according to local station
The FBI arrested a man allegedly planning on attacking a Miami-area synagogue with an explosive device, a south Florida news station reported late Sunday.
The man, who was not named in the report but is expected to appear in federal court on Monday, had planned to attack the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center on Friday evening, according to WSVN.com.
There was no immediate FBI confirmation of the report.
The suspect apparently plotted to throw an explosive device over a wall and into the synagogue grounds during Friday night services, as congregants would have been marking the start of Shabbat and the final day of Passover.
He was arrested before he could carry out the attack and the synagogue was never in danger, according to the report.
Sources told the station the man may have converted to Islam and was stopped by FBI agents posing as fellow terrorists who set up a sting operation.
The Conservative synagogue serves some 800 families in Aventura, a thriving Jewish community just north of Miami Beach, according to the synagogue’s website.
The campus is also home to an early childhood education center and a Holocaust memorial, as well as several social halls.
Jewish leaders in Europe and the US have warned of increased threats of attacks against Jewish institutions. In 2015, the Senate voted to increase security funding for synagogues, day schools and other institutions under the Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
“We have seen a disturbing rise in threats and attacks on community institutions and, when finalized, the funds provided under the NSGP will not only keep our community safer, it will also be a statement of solidarity and support in the face of such threats,” Nathan Diament, the Orthodox Union’s executive director for public policy, said in June when a Senate panel okayed upping the funds from $13 million to $25 million.
As reported by The Times of Israel