An undercover operation led to the arrest of an alleged bombmaker who wanted the impact to be “like a small nuke went off.”
A bombing outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) building at 11 Wall Street in Manhattan was thwarted by an undercover operation led by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who arrested Harun Abdul-Malik Yener and charged him with attempting to build explosives that would kill as many as possible to “reboot” the U.S. government.
Yener, who is homeless, is from Coral Springs, Florida, and a special agent with the FBI in the Miami Field Office led the effort to stop him after the FBI got a tip about his activities.
“In February 2024, the FBI began investigating Yener … after receiving a tip that Yener was storing bombmaking schematics in an unlocked storage unit in Coral Springs, Florida. After obtaining Yener’s consent to search and a subsequent search warrant, FBI special agents found bombmaking sketches, numerous watches with timers, electronic circuit boards, and other electronics in Yener’s storage unit that could be used for constructing explosive devices,” according to the FBI affidavit.
“From search warrant returns on Yener’s Google accounts, agents discovered his repeated Internet searches for aspects of bombmaking since as early as 2017. During an interview on March 1, 2024, Yener told law enforcement he had experience building ‘rockets’ and ‘bombs,’ and that he had previously attempted to join domestic extremist groups,” according to the FBI.
Yener’s motivation for bombing the NYSE “was to attain a ‘reboot’ and/or ‘reset’ of the United States government. In October and November 2024, in a law enforcement-controlled secure location that he believed to be controlled by the militia, Yener re-wired two-way radios to function as a remote trigger for the explosive device,” according to the FBI.
“Yener tasked FBI undercover employees with procuring the explosive element for the device, conducting surveillance of the NYSE, and obtaining photos of the building to identify the precise location for detonating the explosive device,” the FBI says. “Yener planned on wearing a disguise when planting the explosive device outside the NYSE and recorded a message to be delivered to the press about his reasons for the attack.”
Yener wanted the impact of the bomb to be “like a small nuke went off,” adding that “[a]nything outside … will be wiped out” and “anything inside there would be killed,” according to the FBI.
The search of his storage unit at a rental storage facility in Coral Springs yielded more evidence.
“Spiral bound notebooks found in Yener’s storage unit contained numerous drawings and diagrams of various landmines, explosives, missiles, and other improvised explosive devices,” according to the FBI. “When questioned about one such drawing, Yener told interviewing agents the drawing was of a ‘bouncing betty-style landmine,’ which Yener said was a landmine that, when tripped, expels its explosive charge into the air so the charge detonates above ground level for maximum effect.”
The Associated Press reports that Yener had an initial court appearance on Wednesday, Nov. 21, and will be held until a trial date is set. The AP was not able to reach Yener or his counsel for comment.
FTF News contacted representatives of NYSE and its owner the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) for a statement about the FBI’s actions and whether the thwarted attack might impact NYSE operations, hours, and security procedures. ICE and NYSE officials declined to comment. NYSE is the largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization.
The full FBI affidavit can be found here: https://shorturl.at/QWkPq
Need a Reprint?