FBI arrests Queens man for allegedly plotting to blow up Federal Reserve in NYC

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Federal authorities have arrested a man they say was plotting to blow up the Federal Reserve building in New York City, just blocks from the World Trade Center site.

Authorities say 21-year-old Quazi Nafis was arrested Wednesday morning after a sting operation that involved the FBI and the New York City Police Department. The suspect allegedly parked a van filled with what he believed were explosives outside the building and tried to detonate it.

But his associates were actually undercover officers who arrested him at the scene - and the bomb was not real.

A source told CBS News' Pat Milton that the arrest was the result of a several-month investigation, and that the suspect is a student from Jamaica, Queens, in New York.

Federal prosecutors say the man was monitored closely by the FBI in New York and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and that the public was never in danger.