Former Navy Sailor Pleads Guilty to Plotting to Attack Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago

A former Navy sailor has pleaded guilty in federal court in Chicago to plotting to attack Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois, purportedly on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Xuanyu Harry Pang, 38, of North Chicago, Illinois, pleaded guilty to conspiring to and attempting to willfully injure and destroy national defense material, national defense premises, and national defense utilities, with the intent to injure, interfere with, and obstruct the national defense of the United States. The guilty plea was entered on Nov. 5, 2024, in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and ordered unsealed today.

According to court records filed in the case, in the summer of 2021, Pang communicated with an individual in Colombia about potentially assisting with a plan involving Iranian actors to conduct an attack against the United States to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, a general of the IRGC Quds Force who was killed by the U.S. military in 2020. The Quds Force is a branch of the IRGC that conducts unconventional warfare and intelligence activities outside of Iran.

A covert FBI employee, posing as an affiliate of the Quds Force, subsequently communicated online with the individual in Colombia about conducting an attack. The individual in Colombia put the covert FBI employee in touch with Pang, who at the time was stationed and residing at Naval Station Great Lakes. The pair communicated online through an encrypted messaging application about possible targets for the attack, including Naval Station Great Lakes and other locations in the Chicago area. Pang and the individual in Colombia agreed to help the covert FBI employee and his purported associates with their operation to conduct the attack in the United States, court records state.

On three occasions in the fall of 2022, Pang personally met with another individual working with the FBI who was posing as an associate of the covert FBI employee. The first meeting took place outside of the Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago, and the two other meetings were held at a train station in Lake Bluff, Illinois. During the meetings in Lake Bluff, as the plot coalesced into an attack on the Naval Station, Pang displayed photos and videos on his phone of multiple locations inside the Naval Station. He also provided two U.S. military uniforms – for operatives to wear inside the base during the attack – and a cell phone that could be used as a test for a detonator.

Pang is currently detained without bond and is scheduled to be sentenced at a later date. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Sue Bai, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual for the Northern District of Illinois, Assistant Director David J. Scott of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division, and Special Agent in Charge Douglas S. DePodesta of the FBI Chicago Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force – which is comprised of multiple federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies – is investigating the case, with valuable assistance provided by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aaron Bond, Vikas Didwania, and Brandon Stone for the Northern District of Illinois and Trial Attorneys John Cella and Charles Kovats of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.

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Source: Justice.gov