Four California men were plotting to commit “violent jihad” and authorities said the case is “extremely serious.”
The men, Sohiel Omar Kabir, 34, Ralph Deleon, 23, Miguel Alejandra Santana, 21, and Arifeen David Gojali, 21, were arrested after a complaint on Monday in the U.S. District Court in Riverside detailed specific accounts of the case, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Kabir went to Afghanistan in July to set up training with Al Qaeda and Taliban members, as stated in the complaint. He also converted Deleon and Santana to “radical and violent Islamic doctrine.”
David Bowdich, a special agent in charge of counter terrorism in Los Angeles, said, “Any time you have individuals in the U.S. who are willing to go overseas and commit violence … we think that’s extremely serious. They saw this as jihad.”
Their goal was to kill Americans and bomb U.S. military bases overseas, according to The Associated Press.
They are all facing charges of providing material support to terrorists and could get a maximum of 15 years in prison.
Authorities do not believe the men wanted to kill in the United States but would consider American jihad. They used paintball rifles to simulate combat, took all Islamic material off their Facebook pages, and had cover stories lined up.
