A federal judge sentenced a now-former Navy sailor to 12 years in prison for plotting to attack Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago to avenge the death of an Iranian military officer.
Xuanyu Harry Pang, 39, of North Chicago, pleaded guilty in November 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.
U.S. District Judge Jeremy C. Daniel sentenced Pang on Thursday to 12 years in federal prison.
The case, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 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.
U.S. Assistant Attorneys Aaron Bond and Vikas Didwania argued for a 160-month prison sentence and a 20-year term of supervised release.
In a sentencing memorandum, the prosecutors said that serving in the U.S. Military is an “honor and privilege” but Pang used that privilege to do the exact opposite by helping what he believed was a foreign terrorist group to kill fellow sailors.
“He sent photos and videos of the base to help the purported attackers successfully enter the base and kill efficiently. He gave U.S. military uniforms to help these attackers blend in and a cell phone to be used in connection with a detonator for a bomb to explode at the base. Horrifyingly, he wanted to help the attackers inflict “max damage” according to his own words—in return for $1 million and the murder of a drug dealer in Colombia,” Bond and Didwania said.
“Pang believed he was assisting in the slaughter of our youngest servicemembers as they began their selfless service to their country. Nothing about his actions was selfless or honorable,” Bond and Didwania said.
“Pang’s efforts, if successful, would have resulted in horrifying losses of life here and around the world and incalculable damage to our national security. His conduct is deserving of our strongest condemnation,” the prosecutors added.