NEW YORK — Federal investigators on Saturday said they had disrupted a plot by Islamic extremists to blow up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at John F. Kennedy International Airport, another alleged plan aiming at America's air travel system and a landmark in its largest city.
The arrests of a U.S. citizen from Guyana, which neighbors Venezuela, and two alleged accomplices on Trinidad, off the coast of Venezuela, underscored what counter-terrorism officials have described as the global spread of the terrorist threat beyond the Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia associated with Al Qaeda and other groups.
The American, retired JFK cargo worker Russell Defreitas, 63, was charged with three other men in what officials described as a plot intended to cause mass casualties and cripple one of the world's busiest travel hubs. Also arrested were a former member of Guyana's parliament and a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. Another Guyanese citizen is at large, believed to be in Trinidad, authorities said.
The scheme was so nascent, investigators said, that no plan had developed for acquiring explosives, let alone gaining access to the tanks and pipelines.
The men had gathered detailed surveillance of the airport, made repeated overseas trips and sought help from a radical Islamic organization in Trinidad, said federal officials, citing an investigation underway since January 2006.
"The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is unthinkable," said U.S. Atty. Roslynn R. Mauskopf, who represents the Eastern District of New York, at a Saturday afternoon news conference in Manhattan to announce the arrests.
Even so, officials downplayed the danger to travelers, saying that the plot was far from "operational" and that there was no intelligence to suggest an imminent threat in the U.S. "There are no adjustments to our security posture being made as a result of this plot," said a U.S. Homeland Security official who, like others, requested anonymity while discussing the ongoing investigation.
Officials also said there was no indication of any links to the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
The main figure in the alleged plot, Defreitas, was arrested at a Brooklyn diner Friday night. The two other arrested men were said to be in custody in Trinidad.
"Defreitas was driving this," said a U.S. federal law enforcement official familiar with the investigation. "But he was trying to hook up with some heavy-hitters who had connections for backing and financing."
