US authorities have arrested the 19-year-old son of Iranian-American poet Roger Sedarat over an alleged Islamic State-inspired plot to bomb gay bars in Detroit, the New York Post reported citing police sources.
Milo Sedarat was detained at his father’s home in Montclair, New Jersey, on Wednesday in connection with a foiled attack that investigators said was planned for Halloween.
Roger Sedarat, Milo’s father, is an award-winning Iranian-American poet and professor at Queens College in New York City.
Another 19-year-old from Montclair, Tomas Kaan Guzel, was also arrested according to the report.
The arrests came after five other alleged co-conspirators, including one minor, were charged last week following an investigation by the FBI and the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Bureau.
Authorities said the suspects intended to replicate Islamic State's 2015 Paris attacks.
Police sources told the Post that Guzel moved his travel plans forward after learning of FBI raids on other suspects’ homes in Detroit.
Authorities said the raids uncovered multiple firearms, including three AR-15-style rifles, two shotguns, four pistols, and over 1,600 rounds of ammunition, along with tactical vests, GoPro cameras, and combat gear.
FBI Director Kash Patel said before Halloween weekend that the suspects were planning a “violent attack.”
Sedarat and Guzel are expected to face charges in federal court in New Jersey.
Roger Sedarat has authored four collections of poetry including Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic and most recently an academic work, Emerson in Iran: the American Appropriation of Persian Poetry.
