NORTH CHICAGO, Ill. (WLS) – A former Navy sailor who pleaded guilty to plotting to attack the Naval Station Great Lakes and downtown Chicago has been sentenced to 12 years in prison, the ABC7 I-Team has learned.
Xuanyu Harry Pang, 38, of North Chicago, is said to have surveilled the base as part of a terror plot. His plan was stopped in 2022 by the FBI.
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24/7. Click here to watch
Pang pleaded guilty earlier this year in federal court to conspiring 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, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois.
Pang, a naturalized citizen originally from China, is said to have surveilled Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago as a new recruit, as well as Michigan Avenue, Chicago-area train stations and more as part of a terror plot.
The potential catastrophe at Naval Station Great Lakes, as well as the plotted attacks on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, were thwarted by the FBI in 2022 when Pang was arrested.
According to court records, Pang, through another unnamed person in Colombia who is only identified as “Individual A”, met a confidential FBI source in 2022 who claimed to be affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (“IRGC”) Quds Force.
The source informed Pang that he wanted to commit a terror attack in the Chicago area to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, a commander of the IRGC Quds Force who was killed by the U.S. military in 2020.
Eventually, the source connected Pang with a covert FBI employee who was posing as an affiliate of the Quds Force.
READ MORE | Ex-Navy sailor pleads guilty in alleged plot to attack Great Lakes Naval Station, downtown Chicago
Pang, the unnamed “Individual A” and the covert FBI employee all communicated through encrypted messages about possible targets for the attack while Pang was stationed at the Naval Station Great Lakes, court records show.
Pang personally met with the undercover FBI employee three times in the fall of 2022, with Pang showing the employee photos and videos on his phone from inside the Naval Station, as well as along Michigan Avenue at one of the meetings, as possible places to attack.
Pang was recorded during one of those meetings showing the FBI agent images of Michigan Avenue and saying, “You guys are looking for max damage, right?”
Court documents show Pang planned to obtain radioactive polonium and provided a cell phone he believed could be used as a detonator in what may have been a plan to create a dirty bomb.
Pang also obtained military uniforms for potential attackers to use to get onto the Great Lakes Naval Station base, investigators said.
In one recorded exchange through an encrypted messaging app that was included in the charging documents, Pang requested to be paid in Bitcoin because, “It is simply not safe for me or you to be carrying that much cash around. This is Chicago, people gets (sic) robbed every day.”
Pang also said he would travel to Wisconsin to buy automatic weapons.
