Global Airport News

A Colorado man, his father and an accused accomplice in New York were arrested on Saturday and charged with lying to federal agents about a plot to blow up unspecified targets in the United States, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Najibullah Zazi, 24, a native of Afghanistan who works as an airport shuttle bus driver, was questioned by the FBI for three days, and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, were taken into custody at an apartment in the Denver suburb of Aurora.

Also arrested was Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, a native of Afghanistan who was living in the Queens borough of New York City, a Department of Justice spokesman said.

"The arrests carried out tonight are part of an ongoing and fast-paced investigation," David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.

"It is important to note that we have no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack," Kris said.

All three men were expected to make initial court appearances on Monday, Najibullah Zazi and Mohammed Zazi in Denver and Afzali in New York, and each faces a possible eight years in prison if convicted.

According to affidavits filed in the case which document contacts between the three men and Najibullah Zazi's travels between Pakistan and the United States, FBI agents who searched Zazi's rented car on Sept. 11 found a laptop computer containing instructions on the manufacture of explosive devices.

The affidavit says Zazi falsely told agents he had never seen the documents before or written them, but admitted that during a trip to Pakistan he received instruction on weapons and explosives at an al Qaeda training facility in Pakistan.