Najibullah Zazi

Najibullah Zazi is an Afghan-American who drove from his home in Colorado to New York City on September 9, 2009 with the intention of detonating explosives above the New York City subway during rush hour as part of a three-man martyrdom operation on behalf of Al Qaeda. However, authorities were aware of the plan, and Zazi fled before the attack was carried out. He was arrested a few days later. Zazi, who had undergone explosives and weapons training at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan in 2008, was charged with one count of material support of terrorism, one count of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country. Sentencing was delayed extensively while he cooperated with law enforcement, and in 2019, he was sentenced to ten years in prison (effectively, time served) and released.