4 Indicted In JFK Terror Plot

Four men accused of plotting to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport by blowing up a jet fuel supply were indicted Friday.

The indictment filed in Brooklyn charged Russell Defreitas, Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur, all arrested earlier this month, with conspiring to "cause death, serious bodily injury and extensive destruction" at the airport.

The charges were first detailed in a criminal complaint unsealed at the time of the arrests. A grand jury voted Friday to indict the four defendants on five counts of conspiracy.

Defreitas is to be arraigned on the indictment on July 11. His attorney did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment.

The other suspects are fighting extradition in Trinidad.

If convicted, the men could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Prosecutors say Defreitas, 63, a Guyana native who worked as a cargo handler at the airport until 1995, hatched the plot to blow up a jet fuel artery that runs through residential neighborhoods and feeds Kennedy airport. They say the group sought the help of Jamaat al Muslimeen, or JAM, a group based in Trinidad that is known to be violent and involved in killings, kidnappings and weapons trafficking during the past two decades.