BOSTON, April 21 (UPI) — Two Boston men were indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday stemming from an alleged terror plot officials say the pair had planned for last year.
David Daoud Wright and Nicholas Alexander Rovinski have been in custody for nearly a year on the terror-related charges, authorities said, which also implicate a third man who was killed by police last summer.
Wright, 26, and Rovinski, 25, are accused of recruiting members for what investigators call “martyrdom” operation. Wright, they say, had even even communicating with ISIL members overseas.
Thursday’s indictment adds charges to their cases, which already include counts of conspiring to provide material support to Islamic State group. The new counts accuse them of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries.
The pair were captured after the death of Usaamah Abdullah Rahim last June. Officials say Rahm, 26, was supposed to carry out an attack that targeted police officers. After his death, the plot unraveled.
“Beginning in at least February 2015, Wright began discussing ISIL’s call to kill non-believers in the United States with Rahim and Rovinski and they began plotting and recruiting members for their ‘martyrdom’ operation,” a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office states. “Wright drafted organizational documents for a ‘Martyrdom Operations Cell’ and conducted Internet search queries about firearms, the effectiveness of tranquilizers on human subjects and the establishment of secret militias in the United States.”
All three men had also plotted to behead blogger Pamela Geller, who had organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas.
Both Wright and Rovinski pleaded not guilty last summer to the initial terror charges.
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