On the eve of his criminal trial, Abdel Nur, a Guyanese national charged in an international plot to blow up fuel lines at JFK Airport, pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists.
Nur, 60, who was extradited from Trinidad to stand trial in the case, acted as a go-between with the plot’s alleged mastermind, Russell Defreitas and the radical Islamic group in the Caribbean, Jamat al Muslimeen.
Defreitas, a cargo handler at JFK, and four other men sought funding to carry out a bomb plot on the Buckeye pipeline and fuel tanks at the airport in 2007.
“I provided guidance in order to assist them in their plan to attack the fuel line at JFK airport to cause major economic harm to the United States,” Nur told the judge in his plea.
Under the plea agreement, Nur avoided the possibility of life in prison if convicted. He now could face 15 years in prison.
“I became aware that individuals who I had known … were developing a plan that had as its goal the use of an explosive device or material to destroy or extremely damage fuel tanks or fuel pipelines at the John F. Kennedy international airport,“ Nur told the court, reading from a statement.
The goal was to “cause major economic loss in the United States,” he said.
Defreitas and another defendant are expected to stand trial tomorrow.