Ex-sailor pleads guilty to attack plot on US naval base on behalf of IRGC

A former US Navy sailor has pleaded guilty in a Chicago federal court to plotting an attack on Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois purportedly on behalf of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the Justice Department said on Thursday.

Xuanyu Harry Pang, 38, of North Chicago, pleaded guilty on Nov. 5, 2024, to conspiracy and attempted destruction of national defense facilities, but his case was unsealed on Thursday.

"In the summer of 2021, Pang communicated with an individual in Colombia about potentially assisting with a plan involving Iranian actors to conduct an attack against the United States to avenge the death of Qasem Soleimani ," the US Justice Department said in a press release.

Soleimani, a commander of IRGC's Quds Force was killed in a US drone strike near Baghdad International Airport in January 2020, a move ordered by US President Donald Trump.

An undercover FBI employee, posing as an affiliate of the IRGC's foreign operations arm the Quds Force, later engaged with the Colombian contact, who connected the agent to Pang.

While stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes, Pang discussed possible attack targets, including the base and other locations in the Chicago area.

Pang met with an undercover FBI operative three times in late 2022, including in downtown Chicago and Lake Bluff, Illinois. During these meetings, he provided images and videos of the naval base, US military uniforms, and a cell phone that could serve as a test detonator.

Pang remains in custody and faces up to 20 years in prison. His sentencing date has not been set.