Cops bust heavily armed NYC man who expressed jihadist views, was planning something ‘very bad’: sources
A heavily armed Queens man who has shared extreme Jihadist views online was busted in his “ghost car” early Wednesday – with sources saying they feared the nut was planning something “very bad.”
Judd Sanson, 29, was taken into custody around 1:30 a.m., with cops finding a loaded 9mm gun, nine loaded magazines, an NYPD vest, handcuffs, two axes, a stun gun, multiple knives, a weighted whip and an expandable baton – along with NYPD uniform “items,” NYPD Chief Jeffrey Maddrey said at a press briefing.
Cops also recovered a Guy Fawkes “V for Vendetta” mask and an orange MTA vest.
“Members of this department make gun arrests, weapons arrests, arrests for knives every day, but an arrest of this magnitude, the amount of ammunition, NYPD paraphernalia in the car was significant,” Maddrey said.
Etched into the baton were several troubling messages, including, “You left me no choice, I am sorry, You gon [sic] learn today” and the Arabic word for, “God forgive me,” the sources said.
They also found an orange MTA vest, the sources said.
“Given what was in there, something very bad was potentially averted,” one cop told The Post. “The intent is still under investigation. The sum of the parts had the potential for something awful.”
Sanson allegedly also expressed extremist views in online posts, the sources said.
The sources said cops from the 110th Precinct in Queens questioned Sansom around 1 a.m. after a traffic stop near 23rd Avenue and 86th Street and determined he had the weapons in his Ford Explorer.
Police initially pulled the SUV over for having an obstructed license plate. and believed he had been living inside the vehicle – and was a regular drug user, the sources said.
Sanson does not have any prior arrests in the Big Apple, they said.
Cops issued him with a violation for the plate and charged with criminal possession of a weapon and ammunition, the sources said.
Police officials credited the two alert Queens cops who spotted Sanson’s car and the obscured license plates that led to the traffic stop.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry said “ghost cars” – vehicles with phony or obscured license plates – can be tied to criminal activity.
Daughtry said the department has seized 683 vehicles with obscured plates and 2,875 with paper plates so far this year.
Additional reporting by Amanda Woods
