An East Elmhurst man was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for plotting to commit a mass knife attack on civilians at the World’s Fair Marina in Corona with a knife to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, in 2019.
Awais Chudhary, 25, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, pleaded guilty on Aug. 26, 2022 in Brooklyn federal court.
“Awais Chudhary pledged allegiance to a brutal terrorist organization and set out to kill American citizens,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said. “Our prosecutors have ensured that he will spend years behind bars for his crimes, and the Department of Justice will continue to protect the American people from all threats foreign and domestic.”
Chudhary was 19 when federal agents and the NYPD raided his East Elmhurst home and found incriminating evidence on his cellphone. He later identified targets, including pedestrian bridges over the Grand Central Parkway and the Flushing Bay Promenade and the World’s Fair Marina, where he intended to carry out the attacks.
“Chudhary’s plan to cause terror was stopped because of the women and men in law enforcement — and today, our justice system is holding him accountable,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said after his sentencing on Sept. 23.
According to court filings, in August 2019, Chudhary pledged his allegiance to ISIS’ then-leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi after watching violent terrorist propaganda videos, according to court filings. He then sought guidance from individuals whom he believed to be ISIS supporters, including what type of knife to use and how to prevent detection from law enforcement by not leaving “traces of fingerprints [or] DNA.” Chudhary also sent a screenshot of a document from an ISIS propaganda magazine that included a diagram of the human body depicting where to stab victims with a knife. Chudhary conducted several reconnaissance trips to the Queens locations and made video recordings of the area he planned to attack.
Chudhary conducted multiple reconnaissance trips to the targeted locations. On Aug. 24, FBI agents allegedly surveilled Chudhary entering the Malcolm X Promenade in the vicinity of 27th Avenue and Ditmars Boulevard and taking videos and photos with his cellphone of various locations, including the marina, a nearby gas station, a doughnut shop, and a security camera near the doughnut shop, according to court documents.
Chudhary ordered items online that he intended to use to commit a terrorist attack, including a tactical knife, a mask, gloves, a cellphone chest and head strap to facilitate his recording of the attack, which he hoped would serve as inspiration to other ISIS supporters, according to court filings. Chudhary was arrested as he attempted to retrieve the items from an online retailer’s locker in Queens.
“After consuming violent ISIS propaganda for more than a year, the defendant took real-world steps to carry out a lethal terrorist attack in Queens, including scouting the location of his attack and analyzing when it would be the most crowded so he could inflict maximum slaughter,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said. “Thanks to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Chudhary was stopped before anyone was harmed.”
Before planning his specific violent attack, Chudhary separately contributed to ISIS’s violent aims to help recruit English-speaking internet users to the group’s cause. Working with another ISIS member who was separately convicted of material support charges, Chudhary assisted ISIS in its propaganda efforts by helping to translate some of the organization’s propaganda materials into English.
“Awaid Chudhary received a well-deserved punishment for his deliberate plans — motivated by ISIS’s barbaric propaganda — to conduct a mass casualty terrorist attack in Queens,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge Christopher Raia said. “The FBI New York’s Joint Terrorism Task Force remains vigilant and determined to defend our country from the evils of terrorism.”
