In federal court on Monday, three Dearborn men charged in the plot to stage a terror attack on Halloween consented to immediate detention during a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Anthony P. Patti.
Ayob Nasser, 19, his brother Mohmed Ali, 20, and 20-year-old Majed Mahmoud, all of Dearborn, are charged with conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a designated terrorist organization and receiving and transferring guns and ammunition for terrorism, according to court documents.
Nasser stood by his attorney, Jim Thomas, on Monday, who said, “We’re going to waive our challenge to detention at this time, so he’ll be consenting to it with the ability to bring it up later.”
The judge ordered detention by consent for Nasser and set a preliminary hearing for Nov. 21 at 1 p.m.
Muhammad Ali and Majed Mahmoud also consented to detention, and a preliminary hearing for both of them was set for Nov. 17 at 1 p.m.
Ali and Mahmoud also had their initial appearances to hear the amended criminal complaint.
Attorneys for each declined comment Monday, but Amir Makled, who represents Ali, previously told Local 4 he’s found no evidence that any steps to carry out an attack were ever taken.
“There’s nothing that’s going to show — in electronic forensic searches of any of his electronic devices — that’s going to show that this is a guy that wanted to cause harm to others,” Makled said last week. “They go to the range and they go shoot their legally own firearms, which is all legal. There’s nothing here. These are normal kids.”
Attorney William Swore also declined comment Monday, but previously expressed frustration that his client, Mahmoud, was detained.
“He’s 20 years old. He’s been sitting in jail since last Friday,” Swore previously said. “There’s nothing more to say.”
While Makled calls the group “gamers” who legally own firearms and went to gun ranges recreationally, federal investigators said the group used online chats and code-words to plan attacks; a key alert trigger was the use of the word “pumpkin” and pumpkin emojis.
The targets allegedly included Cedar Point in Ohio and LGBTQ-friendly clubs and restaurants in Ferndale.
Federal agents conducted raids in Dearborn and Inkster, and law enforcement recovered more than 1,600 rounds of ammunition, AR-15 style rifles, shotguns, and handguns.
FBI agents surveilled the group for weeks, even using a camera on a pole outside a Dearborn house, according to court records.
Investigators accessed encrypted chats and other conversations and scoured social media posts.
They also searched the homes of the group, an auto repair shop operated by Ali and Nasser’s family and a storage unit rented by Ali.
Authorities found AR-15-style rifles, ammunition, loaded handguns and GoPro cameras, as well as tactical vests and backpacks. Five cellular devices were also seized, the FBI said.
Investigators said that Ali, Mahmoud and one of the minors, Person 1, visited Ferndale bars, despite all being under the legal drinking age. Authorities believe they were scouting LGBTQ-friendly bars and clubs for a possible attack.
Nasser and Person 2 traveled twice in September to “an amusement park in the Midwest,” court documents said, citing phone records and surveillance footage.
Investigators said a computer at the home of Nasser and Ali revealed that someone had searched “is it crowded on Halloweekend” at the amusement park.
Cedar Point, an amusement park near Cleveland, Ohio, hosted special Halloween hours this past month.
Tony Clark, a spokesperson for Cedar Point, confirmed that individuals connected with the plot visited its property, and the park assisted the FBI with its investigation.
“Together with additional third-party experts, the park took immediate and appropriate action to ensure the continued safety of all on property,” Clark said.
Later, the feds said a group chat between the men indicated a Halloween attack with repeated references to pumpkins and pumpkin emojis.
In the group chat, one of the unnamed conspirators wrote “American Jewish Center,” and Nasser responded, “pumpkin sounds good now.”
Documents also showed Person 1 regularly consulted the father of a “local Islamic extremist ideologue” about when to commit a “good deed.” And phone records indicated members of the group looked up information on various mass killings, including the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting and the deadly 2025 New Orleans truck attack.
“We will not stop. We will follow the tentacles where they lead,” U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon, Jr., said previously. “We will continue to stand guard with the FBI against terrorism.”
According to court records, Nasser is also one of two people being sued in federal court by the makers of the popular video game Fortnite.
The two are accused of making thousands of fake “bot” accounts that earned “tens of thousands of dollars in unearned payments.”
Nasser’s attorney in that case, Hussein Shadi Bazzi, told Local 4 the day of the arrests that there was “no credible information to support the notion that a mass casualty event was planned or was going to be carried out.”
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