Three sentenced to jail for plot to explode Somali Muslims’ home

The premeditated plan to use a weapon of mass destruction against their intended victims at an apartment complex in Garden City in the US state of Kansas ended with jail terms for Patrick Eugene Stein and Curtis Allen of Kansas as well as Gavin Wright of Oklahoma on Friday.

"Today's sentence is a significant victory against hate crimes and domestic terrorism," acting US Attorney General Matthew Whitaker said in a news release Friday from the Justice Department. "The defendants in this case acted with clear premeditation in an attempt to kill innocent people on the basis of their religion and national origin. That's not just illegal -- it's morally repugnant."

The Somalis living in the city with a population of 26,000 have asserted that they do not intend to harm anyone.

"Please, we need peace and love," Ifrah Farah, a member of the Somali community was cited by CNN as saying. "Because we came here for better lives. We are refugees. We live here. We are not bad people. We love everybody."

The men who had plotted an attack after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida were found guilty in April.

According to prosecutors, they used offensive language to refer to Muslims and "described in the most extreme and violent terms what they planned to do to them."

"A confidential source, whom the government credited for thwarting the attack and saving the lives of innocent victims, recorded numerous conversations during which the defendants discussed and refined their plan," the Justice Department said. "As the plan solidified, the defendants discussed obtaining four vehicles, filling them with explosives, and parking them at the four corners of the apartment complex to create an explosion that would be sure to level the building and kill its occupants."

One of the three men, Stein, apparently met with an undercover FBI agent posing as a black market arms dealer.

"Today's sentencing speaks to the FBI's commitment to protect the communities we serve and our continued obligation to disrupt plots where the intent is to commit violence and harm others," claimed Darrin Jones, special agent in charge of the FBI Kansas City Division.