A now-former Navy sailor has pleaded guilty to plotting to attack Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago to avenge the death of an Iranian military officer.
Xuanyu Harry Pang, 38, of North Chicago, pleaded guilty to conspiring to and attempting to willfully injure and destroy national defense material, national defense premises and national defense utilities with the intent to injure, interfere with and obstruct the national defense of the United States.
Pang entered into the guilty plea on November 5 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois but court records were not unsealed to the public until Thursday.
The case stems from an investigation conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and Chicago Joint Terrorism Task Force, which is comprised of multiple federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
Prosecutors said Pang communicated in the summer of 2021 with an individual in Colombia about potentially assisting with a plan involving Iranian actors to conduct an attack against the United States.
The purported attack was to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani, a general of the IRGC Quds Force who was killed by the U.S. military in 2020, prosecutors said.
The Quds Force is a branch of the IRGC that conducts unconventional warfare and intelligence activities outside of Iran.
A covert FBI employee, posing as an affiliate of the Quds Force, later communicated online with the individual in Colombia about conducting an attack.
The individual in Colombia put the covert FBI employee in touch with Pang, who at the time was stationed and residing at Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, court records show.
The pair communicated online through an encrypted messaging application about possible targets for the attack, including the Naval Station Great Lakes and other locations in the Chicago area.
Pang and the individual in Colombia agreed to help the covert FBI employee and his purported associates with their operation to conduct the attack in the United States, court records show.
Pang personally met with another individual, who was working with the FBI posing as an associate of the covert FBI employee, on three occasions in the fall of 2022.
The first meeting took place outside of the Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago and the two other meetings were held at the Metra train station in Lake Bluff, prosecutors said.
During the meetings in Lake Bluff, as the plot formulated into an attack on the Naval Station, Pang showed photos and videos on his phone of multiple locations inside the Naval Station.
He also provided two U.S. military uniforms for operatives to wear inside the base during the attack and a cell phone that could be used as a test for a detonator, court records show.
Court documents show that Pang and the other person exchanged messages where they talked about demanding a payment of $1 million for their assistance with the plot to attack the naval base.
Pang, who faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, remains detained in law enforcement custody without bond.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy C. Daniel scheduled a sentencing hearing for May 27 following his guilty plea.