History and mysteries · Fort Dix and South Jersey
Fort Dix: the attack plot interrupted before it reached the base (2007)
Documented history · Source reviewed
A federal prosecution documented surveillance, an informant-assisted weapons purchase and convictions for conspiring to kill military personnel.
Arrests before an attack
Federal agents arrested members of the Fort Dix plot on May 7, 2007. The Justice Department’s sentencing account places the decisive weapons transaction in Cherry Hill, where two defendants met a confidential government witness.
Trial evidence included surveillance of military installations, a detailed Fort Dix map and recordings of firearms training. These acts belonged to planning for an attack; no attack on the base was carried out.
What the jury decided
In December 2008, a jury convicted five men of conspiracy to murder U.S. military personnel, with additional weapons convictions for several defendants. Sentences followed in April 2009. The Justice Department distinguished the five conspiracy convictions from a sixth arrested man’s separate firearms case.
The agency also said the defendants were not members of an international terrorist organization. Its account supports a specific prosecution and set of judgments, not collective blame directed at a religion, nationality or immigrant community.
Sources and research limits
Justice Department, April 29, 2009 sentencing release. This is the prosecution’s account of the evidence and verdicts; trial transcripts and later collateral proceedings were not comprehensively reviewed.