The FBI said Tuesday that it found "explosive residue" in a Pennsylvania storage unit believed to be connected to what authorities described as an "ISIS-inspired terrorism" incident near New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's residence over the weekend.
In apost on X, the FBI said that it found the explosives and that authorities "conducted a controlled detonation to ensure the safety of law enforcement and others in the area." The explosives are "believed to be connected" to Saturday's incident, in which improvisedexplosive devices were thrownoutside Gracie Mansion during weekend protests.
Two Pennsylvania teenagers — Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, and Emir Balat, 18 — are facing federal charges in connection with the Saturday incident.
None of the devices were detonated and nobody was injured.
A senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said several components and chemicals were removed from the Pennsylvania storage facility. The official added that local police detonated some of those components out of precaution as part of their ongoing investigation late last evening.
Separately, the New York City Police Department on Tuesday responded to another suspicious device located near Gracie Mansion, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News. It isn't clear if this is a real explosive, a hoax or trash that was discarded near the scene, the official said.
The NYPD said in apost on Xto avoid several streets in the surrounding area of the mayor's home.
The federal complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleges that Balat and Kayumi made statements about the Islamic State terrorist group before and after their arrests. Body camera video from the New York City police officers who arrested Kayumi shows him responding "ISIS" to someone in the crowd asking why he had done it, according to the complaint.
Federal prosecutors said that the pair hoped to inflict more carnage than theBoston Marathon bombing, whichkilled three people and injured more than 260 others in 2013.
"This is a publicly declared terror trial, this is the city of New York, he's 18, and he's exposed to the general population of what is called a hellhole, and we want to keep him protected," Mehdi Essmidi, Balat's attorney, told NBC News on Monday.
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Kayumi and Balat are being held in custody pending an application for bail. They are facing several charges, including unlawfully possessing and using a "weapon of mass destruction," transporting explosives and attempting to aid a "designated foreign terrorist organization," according to the federal complaint.
In a Monday court hearing, attorneys for the teenagers requested protective custody for their clients at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
An attorney for Kayumi did not immediately return a request for comment. Both are from Bucks County in southeastern Pennsylvania, with Balat residing in Langhorne and Kayumi in Newtown, according to authorities.
While it is not immediately clear how Kayumi and Balat know one another, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News that the two suspects drove from Pennsylvania to New York City in the same borrowed car from an associate.
That associate of the pair did not know what the two men were allegedly up to when giving permission to borrow the vehicle, the source said.
Separately, questions are being asked about whether the unexplained explosion sounds that occurred in January can be attributed to the suspects. The explosions occurred in a town next to where one of the suspects lived, according to a report by NBC affiliate WCAU.
At a Monday press conference with police, Mamdani said that he and his wife, Rama Duwaji, were at a museum in Brooklyn when the explosives were thrown and condemned the incident.
Mamdani, the city's first Muslim mayor, also castigated the original event taking place outside his official residence, calling it a "vile protest rooted in white supremacy."
The anti-Islam demonstration, called "Stop the Islamic Takeover of New York City, Stop New York City Public Muslim Prayer," was led by conservative provocateur Jake Lang, 30. The event drew roughly two dozen protesters and more than 120 counterprotesters, according to police.
Lang declined NBC News' request to be interviewed.
Lang, who was pardoned for charges tied to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, held a similar rally in Minneapolis in January. The anti-immigration protest was held in the days afterRenee Goodwas fatally shot by a federal immigration officer.