VILLAGE OF MONROE – An Oregon man who claimed early Wednesday morning that he was on his way to leave explosives at LaGuardia Airport has been charged with falsely reporting an incident and making terroristic threats.
Abdurrahman Issam Qadan, 26, of Tigard, Ore., was stopped by a Village of Monroe police officer at about 1 a.m. along Route 17M near the entrance of ShopRite, police say. The officer was on patrol and thought the man was acting suspicious, police said.
Qadan told the officer that he had affiliations with ISIS, an acronym for the Islamic State terrorist group. According to police, Qadan said that he had gotten into a fight with his girlfriend while she was driving them to LaGuardia Airport in Queens. Qadan got out of the vehicle with his belongings, which included a duffle bag.
Police say the officer asked where the duffle bag was, and Qadan said he placed it behind the Mobil gas station on Route 17M next to an oil tank. He also said the bag had explosives in it.
Qadan told the officer that he planned to place the bag with explosives at the airport but when he got out of the car he decided to dispose of it behind the gas station instead, police said.
Qadan warned police not to go near the bag because the explosives could explode, police said. The officer also found a laptop and cell phone near the bag, which was leaning against an oil tank.
A state police bomb unit was called to the scene and a perimeter was set up around the gas station. Parts of Route 17M and Route 208 were shut down.
A search by the bomb squad of the items found no explosives. Qadan, later interviewed by investigators with the FBI Joint Terrorist Task Force at the Monroe Police headquarters, admitted he lied about the explosives, according to police.
Monroe Police Det. David Lee said he couldn’t say whether Qadan suffered from any mental issues, but said something did seem off about him.
“He does have some issues,” Lee said.
Lee said police had spoken with Qadan’s girlfriend. She corroborated some of the story but didn’t say they had plans to plant explosives at LaGuardia Airport.
Lee said Qadan has been on the FBI’s radar in the past.
“They were interested in him before the incident,” Lee said. “He wasn’t a direct target, but there had been other people he had been associated with.”
Lee said Qadan was also found with amphetamines.
Abu Abdullah Alia of Vancouver, Wash., said he’s the father of Qadan’s ex-wife. Alia said he last saw Qadan in late 2015, but that Qadan had spoken with his daughter last week. He said Qadan told her he may have gotten a job in New York. He said that Qadan never talked about ISIS as far as he knew.
Qadan is charged with second-degree falsely reporting an incident and making terroristic threats, felonies, and seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor. Further charges are pending, Lee said. He was arraigned in Monroe Justice Court and sent to Orange County Jail on $300,000 cash bail, $1 million bond.
