The Boston Marathon explosions were on the minds of officials in Manhattan today as a would-be city synagogue bomber was sentenced to five years prison.
Mohamed Mamdouh, 22, a naturalized citizen from Morocco, had pleaded guilty in a closed-court proceeding last year to conspiracy and weapons possession as crimes of terror; his co-defendant, Algerian citizen Ahmed Ferhani, got a ten-year sentence last month as the scheme’s mastermind.
The two had been taped during an eight-month NYPD undercover operation plotting to throw a grenade into an unspecified synagogue, and to wire multiple bombs to a single detonator so as to blow up several synagogues simultaneously.
Ferhani was arrested in a sting operation on Manhattan’s West Side in May, ’11 as he purchased two operable Browning semi-automatic pistols, one operable Smith and Wesson revolver, ammo and an inert grenade from an undercover. Mamdouh was arrested as he waited a few blocks away.
“It is at once fitting and frightening that we are here on this New York City case only 11 days after the Boston marathon,” assistant district attorney Gary Galperin said at today’s sentencing.
“It’s a stark reminder that we live in a changed world,” he said.
Added Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus, “The conduct contemplated is well beyond what can possibly be tolerated in a civilized society… That’s especially apparent in light of recent events.”
DA Cyrus Vance, Jr. said the sentencing “marks the successful conclusion of New York’s first state-level terror prosecution.”
He added, “Hard work by local police and prosecutors continues to keep New York the safest big city in the United States.”