BALTIMORE, April 6 (UPI) -- A Maryland man who pleaded guilty to trying to attack a military recruiting center was sentenced to 25 years in prison Friday, the Justice Department said.
Baltimore resident Antonio Martinez, 22, also known as Muhammad Hussain, also was sentenced to five years of supervised release after pleading guilty to attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction against an armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, a Baltimore suburb.
Martinez was arrested Dec. 8, 2010, after he tried to detonate what he thought were explosives.
"This is an example of another successful prosecution that resulted from outstanding partnerships between the Muslim community and law enforcement," FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard McFeely said. "As the threat from homegrown violent extremists remains high, the FBI and our police partners rely on a two-way flow of information with the Muslim community at large. Together we are working to stop those that have perverted the Islamic faith into something it is not."
Prosecutors said Martinez, who approached an FBI informant to discuss attacking military targets, attempted to recruit a number of people to join in the operation but all of them declined. He then agreed to meet with the source's "Afghani brother" -- in reality, an undercover FBI agent -- who was represented as being interested in the operation.
Martinez, a recent convert to Islam who had posted his militant beliefs on his Facebook page, admitted he entered the parking lot of the recruiting station intending to detonate the bomb, which was inert, prosecutors said.
