WASHINGTON — A Colorado airport shuttle driver was indicted Thursday on federal charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in a possible Al Qaeda-linked bomb plot in the United States.
Najibullah Zazi, 24, faces charges of conspiring to use explosives against persons or property in the United States, the Justice Department said.
Authorities believe he and others may have been plotting a copycat mass transit attack in New York City similar to those on subways in London and Madrid.
LIVESHOTS: New Charges in Terror Probe
"We are investigating a wide range of leads related to this alleged conspiracy, and we will continue to work around the clock to ensure that anyone involved is brought to justice," said Attorney General Eric Holder in a statement. "We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted."
Zazi — an Afghanistan native who is a legal permanent resident of Aurora, Colo. — previously was charged with the lesser offense of lying to the government for his suspected involvement in the New York-Denver-based scheme.
Two others, Zazi's father and a controversial Queens, N.Y., imam, also are charged with lying to federal agents from the FBI trying to uncover the plot.
Authorities say they found bomb-making instructions on a hard drive on Zazi's laptop computer but still were unsure of the specific target or scope of a possible terrorist attack. They say they have linked Zazi to Al Qaeda.
The Justice Department accused the Denver airport shuttle driver of "knowingly and intentionally" plotting with others "to use one or more weapons of mass destruction, specifically explosive bombs and other similar explosive devices." The alleged planning happened between Aug. 1, 2008, and Sept. 21, 2009, according to the DOJ.
The indictment also alleges that Zazi and others traveled within the United States and overseas and used e-mail and the Internet in plotting the bombings.
Related Stories
* 24 People Reportedly Under Observation in NYC-Colorado Terror Probe
* Complaint Suggests NYPD Misstepped in Terror Probe
* Authorities Eye Stadiums, Hotels in Colorado Terror Plot Probe, but Police Downplay Threat
* Terror Suspect Fails to Report for Questioning in NYC Probe
* Source: Colo. Man in Suspected NYC Subway Plot Admits Ties to Al Qaeda
Zazi, his 53-year-old father Mohammed Zazi, and mosque leader Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, were arrested over the weekend and due in federal court in Denver and New York Thursday morning.
Zazi's father was expected to be freed on $50,000 bail after detention hearings Thursday. Zazi and the imam will likely stay in jail.
Also Thursday, reports emerged of a 1992 guilty plea by Afzali to sexual assault charges. FOX News has not confirmed those reports.
On Wednesday, hundreds of federal agents and New York investigators again fanned out in the Queens neighborhood where apartments were searched last week to re-interview "people previously encountered" during the earlier raids.
Backpacks and cell phones were confiscated, and efforts were made to locate others who know the suspects in custody or others, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the probe.
The effort also includes a review of phone and other records that could link potential suspects to one another or identify new ones.
"Many of the people we've spoken to have been cooperative," an official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The official said business owners also are on the list of possible witnesses in a potential homemade-bomb plot. The official declined to identify those businesses, but authorities regularly monitor sales by suppliers of chemicals that could be used in improvised explosives.
Investigators searched for anyone else who might know something about the alleged terror plot.
The arrests came after the raids of several apartments in the Queens neighborhood, where Zazi had driven from Denver to visit earlier this month, and were followed by a flurry of nationwide warnings of possible strikes on transit, sports and entertainment complexes.
But questions lingered about whether early missteps hindered the investigation. A criminal complaint suggests police acting without the FBI's knowledge might have inadvertently blown the surveillance and forced investigators' hand by questioning Afzali — considered a trusted police source in the community — about Zazi and other possible plotters.
The imam, it says, turned around and tipped off Zazi by calling him the next day and saying in a recorded conversation, "They asked me about you guys."
The detectives referred to in the recently unsealed criminal complaint work for a division that operates independently from an FBI-run terrorism task force.
Police officials say that their investigators reached out to Afzali — showing him pictures of four possible suspects to identify, including Zazi — only after receiving fresh information from the terrorism task force that a terrorism plot was possibly in progress.
In a joint statement, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Joe Demarest, head of the FBI office in New York, denied reports that the questioning of Afzali and his alleged betrayal had caused a rift between the agencies.
The New York Times, quoting unnamed current and former police officials, reported in Thursday editions that the New York Police Department transferred two commanders this week, including one from its counterterrorism bureau.
NYPD top spokesman Paul Browne would not confirm the transfers or comment late Wednesday
