A Cuban citizen who resides in Florida was sentenced to life in prison for attempting to plant a bomb on the beach at Key West, Fla., and remotely detonate the explosive device from afar, the Justice Department said Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez of Key West gave 23-year-old Harlem Suarez a lifetime sentence for trying to use a weapon of mass destruction against the public and two decades of additional prison time for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham.
Suarez, who also goes by Almlak Benitez, started plotting the attack in April 2015. The Monroe County, Fla., resident had posted extremist rhetoric and promoted the Islamic State on his Facebook profile.
Court documents from the trial revealed Suarez, a U.S. legal resident, had told an undercover FBI agent that he wanted to create a “timer bomb.” Suarez had purchased the materials necessary for the bomb, including galvanized nails. He had planned to put the bomb in a backpack, bury it in the sand on a public beach and detonate the bomb with a cell phone while removed at a secure location.
Suarez was convicted at his trial in Key West on Jan. 27.
