A Hezbollah operative was caught while attempting to cross the US border, confessing to being a member of the organization and expressing intentions to construct a bomb, with New York City as his target, as reported by the New York Post.
Border patrol officers in the United States detained Basel Bassel Abbadi, a 22-year-old Lebanese national from the Burj El Brajneh neighborhood of Lebanon, on March 9 near El Paso, Texas.
During interrogation, Abbadi admitted his plans, stating, “I’m going to try to make a bomb,” according to documents from the border patrol obtained by The New York Post.
In a subsequent interview, Abbadi revealed that he had “trained with Hezbollah for seven years and worked as an active member guarding weapons sites for another four years,” according to internal documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Abbadi’s training focused on “jihad” and targeting non-Muslim individuals, he disclosed.
He fled Lebanon because he “didn’t want to kill people,” stating, “Once you enter, you can never leave.”
Abbadi entered the United States without documents, claiming they were stolen “at knifepoint” while he was in Costa Rica.
Additionally, Abbadi confessed to using false birthdays and names in Sweden, Ecuador, and Panama earlier this year. Originally, he had hoped to go to New York and travel around the country.
Abbadi was immediately isolated and interviewed by the Terrorism Response Tactical Team (TTRT) on charges of making “terroristic threats to employees.”
Internal documents indicate that he was slated for deportation from the United States, but didn’t indicate which country he would be sent to.
Border agents continue to witness an increase in migrants whose names appear on the terror watchlist entering the US illegally as crossings persist at record levels.
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