MIAMI -- A man described by the FBI as an Islamic State sympathizer who hoped to mount attacks on U.S. soil was charged Tuesday with plotting to detonate a nail-filled backpack bomb on a Florida beach.
A criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday charges 23-year-old Harlem Suarez of Key West with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in the U.S. If convicted, he could face a maximum punishment of life in prison.
Authorities said Suarez came to the FBI's attention through Facebook posts that praised the Islamic State and contained extremist rhetoric.
In April, Suarez reportedly posted, "Be a warrior, learn how to cut your enemies head and then burn down the body learn how to be the new future of the world Caliphate" -- a reference the Islamic State's goal of building a regional fundamentalist entity.
Suarez made his first court appearance Tuesday in Miami and was being held without bail with a detention hearing set for next week. His temporary attorney, Richard Della Fera, said in an email that Suarez "may be a troubled and confused young man but he is certainly not a terrorist."
"He comes from a very good, hardworking family that arrived here from Cuba in 2004 because they yearned for freedom. They raised their son to love this country," Della Fera said.
Attempts to reach friends and family members by email and telephone were not immediately successful.
The complaint says Suarez told an FBI informant he wanted to make a timer bomb, bury it on a Key West beach and detonate it remotely. Suarez was arrested Monday after taking possession of an inert explosive device provided by an FBI informant, the complaint says.
Suarez had given the informant some bomb supplies, including two boxes of galvanized nails, the backpack and a cellphone to be used as a detonator, according to the complaint.
"I can go to the beach at the night time, put the thing in the sand, cover it up, so the next day I just call and the thing is gonna, is gonna make, a real hard noise from nowhere," Suarez told an FBI source in a recorded call, according to the complaint.
Suarez was being monitored for months by U.S. authorities and never made an actual explosive, and there was no indication in the FBI complaint that he had contact with any Islamic State militants overseas. Still, Miami's FBI special agent in charge, George Piro, said the purported threats had to be taken seriously.
"There is no room for failurewhen it comes to investigating the potential use of a weapon of mass destruction," Piro said.
The FBI said Suarez sought to make an Islamic State recruitment video using a script he wrote himself. It eventually was made under FBI surveillance at a motel in Homestead, according to the complaint, with Suarez dressed in a black tactical vest, black shirt, mask and yellow-and-black scarf.
"American soil is the past, we will destroy America and divide it in two, we will rais(e) our black flag on top of your white house and any president on duty (cut head)," Suarez says in a script for the video.
The FBI said Suarez also ordered an AK-47 assault rifle on the Internet and intended to have it delivered to a Key West pawnshop. Although he could legally purchase the weapon, the FBI said, Suarez incorrectly filled out paperwork and it was returned to the seller.
Several dozen people have been charged in the U.S. with attempting to fight alongside the Islamic State and other militants or with lending them material support.
Also on Tuesday, a Georgia man who wrote that he was "ready for jihad" before buying a one-way ticket overseas to try to join the Islamic State was sentenced to federal prison after he told the judge, "I am an American."
Leon Nathan Davis III of Augusta was sentenced to 15 years, the maximum punishment allowed. The 38-year-old Davis pleaded guilty in May to seeking to help a known terrorist organization.
He was arrested at the Atlanta airport in October while trying to board a flight to Turkey. Davis later said his plan was to be smuggled into Syria so he could join the Islamic State as a recruiter and an English teacher.
During his sentencing Tuesday, Davis told the judge he had been "brainwashed" by writings and online propaganda of radical Muslims not long after he converted to Islam while imprisoned for cocaine trafficking a decade ago.
"I allowed myself to stray away from the truth of my religion, which is peace, love and humility," Davis said. "They brainwashed me into thinking that hatred and death were the way into heaven."
But prosecutors said Davis was far from harmless.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlton Bourne showed the judge a photograph Davis posted online of himself holding a shotgun and surrounded by other weapons. Bourne said Davis added the caption: "ready for jihad."
About a year before buying his plane ticket, Bourne said, Davis posted online: "One of my greatest desires is to kill Zionists and bring down Israel and the United States of America."
Davis and his attorney said he never meant harm, particularly to Americans. Davis was born in Augusta and had a father who served in the military. He told the judge that because of his actions, his wife, an Iraqi citizen, has been barred from returning to the U.S.
"I love my country and I am an American," Davis said. "This is the best country in the world, and it deserves better."
Information for this article was contributed by Russ Bynum of The Associated Press.
A Section on 07/29/2015