Reynolds Found Guilty of Terrorism

Michael Curtis Reynolds, a former Wilkes-Barre, PA resident was found guilty of attempted terrorist activity was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday, November 7, 2007.^[1]

Reynolds was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Edwin M. Kosik after he was found guilty in July on four counts of attempted terrorist activity and of two counts of illegal hand grenade possession.^[2] Reynolds was found guilty for attempting to assist al-Qaida in obtaining weapons and material support over a three-month span in 2005.^[3]

It is believed that Reynolds planned to blow up targets such as the Transcontinental Pipeline, a natural-gas pipeline that runs from the Gulf Coast to New York and New Jersey, as well as the Alaskan pipeline.^[4] He was arrested on Dec. 5, 2005, when FBI officials surrounded an Idaho rest stop where Reynolds tried to retrieve a bag filled with $40,000 that was promised by an undercover FBI agent posing as an al-Qaida contact.^[5]

“Since Sept. 11, 2001, the first priority of all law enforcement agencies has been to prevent future acts of terror on our homeand,” acting U.S. Attorney Martin C. Carlson said in a prepared statement.^[6] “Today’s sentencing constitutes a triumph of the rule of law over those who would use terror against nations.”^[7]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has discussed the terrorism crime of providing support to terrorists extensively in this blog; these posts can be accessed here.

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^[1] Jeremy Grad, Reynolds gets 30 years in terror plot, TimesLeader.com, November 7, 2007, available at http://www.timesleader.com/news/20071107_07_reynolds_ART.html (last visited November 7, 2007).
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.