Behind the Halloween raid that prevented a terror bloodbath: ‘People would have died’

SPECIAL: The FBI foiled a major terrorist attack in October that prevented the killing of countless Americans and exposed a global terrorist network through investigative strategies that led to “some of the most impactful arrests” in the counterterrorism program in recent years.

Fox News Digital sat down Thursday with FBI Director Kash Patel, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino and a senior agent official directly involved in counterterrorism cases for an exclusive interview.

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The FBI said the potential terrorist attack would take place in Michigan before the Halloween weekend and was allegedly linked to ISIS. The FBI arrested several suspects accused of planning the terrorist attack.

A sketch of Mohmed Ali and Majed Mahmoud taken in federal court on November 10, 2025. The two are accused of a thwarted ISIS-inspired terrorist attack, according to the FBI affidavit. (Carole Kabrin)

“The arrests in Detroit, Newark and Seattle represent one of the deadliest conspiracies the FBI has encountered in recent memory,” the agent told Fox News Digital. “These eight arrests and those that have occurred around the world are some of the most impactful arrests to occur in the counterterrorism program in recent years.”

Two men were charged in federal court: Mohamed Ali and Majed Mahmoud, both of Dearborn, Michigan. Charges include transporting firearms and ammunition, conspiring or attempting to knowingly use them to commit and support terrorism, and providing material support to ISIS.

The government alleges that five people, including a minor, were involved in the conspiracy.

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Patel told Fox News Digital that the FBI “immediately arrested individuals who were clear actors while constantly surveilling people in New Jersey and Seattle.”

This split image shows, on the left, a surveillance image of two suspects at a gun range in Michigan, and on the right, a selfie that a New Jersey suspect allegedly took after blurring his face and sending it to his friends. (Eastern District of Michigan, District of New Jersey)

Responding to critics, Patel said, “We then arrested them in a coordinated manner to bring down the entire network.” “If we had done it the way the media wanted, we would have waited for them to kill Americans and then arrested them.”

Patel was referring to media reports that criticized the FBI’s timeline and claimed that investigators did not have enough details about whether the attack was actually imminent.

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“If we hadn’t moved, we wouldn’t be able to detail the entire network, which we now know covers the entire world,” the representative told Fox News Digital. “There have been arrests abroad directly linked to the same conspiracy, and if we had made these arrests ahead of time, these would not have happened.”

The representative told Fox News Digital that he could not provide further details regarding the potential attack due to existing litigation in the US and Europe.

Ayob Nasser in Black is the fifth person charged in connection with the alleged Halloween terror plot in Michigan. His older brother, Mohmed Ali, was charged along with Majed Mahmoud, 20, of Dearborn. Separately, two other teenagers were arrested in New Jersey. (Eastern District of Michigan)

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“People would have died. A lot of them. That’s a fact. A lot of people would have died,” Bongino told Fox News Digital. “And their work stopped that.”

In October, the FBI executed a search warrant on Ali and Mahmoud’s homes and a storage unit they allegedly shared, seizing multiple semiautomatic rifles, a shotgun, handguns, tactical gear and more than 1,600 rounds of 5.56mm ammunition.

Agents also obtained surveillance video showing Ali and other co-conspirators at a gun range in Michigan, where they are accused of practicing shooting in preparation for the thwarted attack.

The conspirators were allegedly inspired by the Pulse attack and the coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015 that killed 137 people and injured more than 400, according to the FBI affidavit.

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The suspects also sought advice from the father of a local “Islamic extremist ideologue” in Michigan and allegedly sought religious approval for the plot, according to the FBI affidavit.

They also allegedly discussed choosing a date that would be celebrated by later radical Islamic terrorists.