Two New York women who lived together were held without bail Thursday on charges they were planning to build a bomb and carry out a terror attack in the United States.
US citizens Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, were named in a complaint unsealed in the federal district court in Brooklyn.
Siddiqui was "in possession of multiple propane gas tanks, as well as instructions for how to transform propane tanks into explosive devices," the complaint states.
The suspects allegedly expressed repeated support for violent jihad, with Siddiqui writing a poem in an Al-Qaeda magazine as early as 2009 and Velentzas calling Osama bin Laden one of her heroes.
They communicated with members of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based in Yemen, and watched videos of beheadings carried out by extremists from the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, the complaint said.
If convicted, both women — roommates in Queens — risk spending the rest of their life behind bars.
John Miller, deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism of New York police, confirmed that two women were arrested early Thursday.
Siddiqui's lawyer says she will enter a not-guilty plea and plans to fight the charges in court. Valentzas' attorney declined to comment.
The case was the latest in a string of alleged plots inspired by Islamic extremists.
Last week, two cousins were arrested in Chicago for allegedly conspiring to wage war on behalf of IS jihadists.
In March, four men pleaded not guilty in federal courts in Brooklyn over alleged plots to join the IS group in Syria.
Former US Air Force mechanic Tairod Pugh, 47, spent the last 18 months living in the Middle East but was deported home to the United States after being detained at Istanbul airport.
Uzbek citizens Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev, 24 and Abror Habibov, 30, together with Kazakh citizen Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, pleaded not guilty in connection to a separate plot.
Read the indictment below.
USA vs. Velentzas & Siddiqui
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