Chicago Man Sentenced to 16 Years in Federal Prison for Attempting to Detonate Explosive Device

Chicago Man Sentenced to 16 Years in Federal Prison for Attempting to Detonate Explosive Device

A suburban Chicago man was sentenced recently to 16 years in federal prison for attempting to detonate an explosive device at a bar in downtown Chicago.

Adel Daoud, 25, of Hillside, Ill., attempted to detonate what he thought was a 1,000-pound car bomb at a popular bar in the downtown Loop neighborhood of Chicago on Sept. 14, 2012. Prior to the evening of the planned attack, Daoud had been preaching for violent jihad and expressed an interest in working with operational terrorists. He researched and created a list of potential Chicago-area targets, which included movie theaters, bars and nightclubs, a suburban mall, and military recruiting centers. Unbeknownst to Daoud, the explosive device at the Loop bar was inert and had been constructed by bomb technicians from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Daoud was arrested on the scene after twice attempting to detonate the purported bomb. He has been in federal custody since then.

U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman imposed the sentence in federal court in Chicago.

“Protecting our national security is the Department of Justice’s top priority,” said U.S. Attorney John R. Lausch, Jr, who announced the sentence. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to prevent, disrupt, and defeat terrorist operations before they occur.”

The attempted bombing was one of three cases against. While he was jailed for attempting to detonate the bomb, Daoud in late 2012 solicited his cellmate to have a violent gang member murder an FBI agent who had posed undercover as a terrorist during the investigation. The murder-for-hire plot was not carried out, and the FBI agent was not injured. The third case against Daoud involved a violent assault on a fellow jail inmate in 2015. While incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, Daoud attacked an inmate who had drawn what Daoud felt was an insulting picture of the prophet Mohammad. The inmate suffered lacerations on his head and a bite mark on an arm.

Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

Quandra-Urban Market Exchange