MILFORD -- Off a muddy road in rural Hill County, in a nondescript tan mobile home, Hosam "Sam" Smadi made his final plans to bring down a Dallas skyscraper, authorities say.
Federal officials learned about the well-hidden mobile home after arresting the 19-year-old Jordanian on Sept. 24. Smadi gave the FBI written consent to search the residence, where he moved Sept. 22.
Inside, officials found a Beretta handgun; two loaded magazines; one box of Winchester 9 mm ammunition; a laptop; a digital camera; and numerous documents, including Smadi’s passport, tax returns, a visa and a birth certificate, according to a receipt filed by the FBI that lists the seized property.
Smadi is being held in a federal detention center in Seagoville on a charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. On Sept. 24, federal officials said, he tried to detonate what he believed was a car bomb under Fountain Place, a 60-story tower in Dallas.
The device was a fake provided by FBI employees posing as al Qaeda operatives.
After his arrest, Smadi told federal officials that he had moved out of his dome-shaped apartment in the town of Italy two days earlier and into a mobile home off Hill County Road 4311 near Milford. According to a search warrant affidavit, Smadi gave authorities directions to the residence, which is tucked behind a tin-roofed mobile home.
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