Sep 25, 2009 3:25 am US/Eastern
Source: Zazi's 'Connections' Back In NYC
Law Enforcement Official Close To Investigation Tells CBS 2 HD Whomever Assisted Suspect In Denver Is Back Among Us
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Najibullah Zazi, 24, arrives at the Byron G. Rogers Federal Building on Sept. 17, 2009, in Denver, Colo.
Marc Piscotty/Getty Images
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Mohammed Zazi, father of Najibullah Zazi, was arrested along with his son and a third man from New York City for possible ties to terrorists.
AP
There was a bombshell in the terror investigation on Thursday evening, with New York City at a heightened state of alert.
Around 6 p.m. the NYPD Bomb Squad, including an officer in a protective suit, checked out a suspicious package, just a block from the New York Stock Exchange.
Streets were closed, but it turned out to be a false alarm.
The brief scare came just hours after terror suspect Najibullah Zazi was indicted in Brooklyn on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.
Now CBS 2 HD has learned Zazi may have had help and it's a New York City connection.
A senior official familiar with the investigation said New York associates of Zazi's visited Zazi in Colorado and helped him buy bomb-making materials with stolen credit cards.
Those associates are back in New York, according to the official.
Zazi was indicted in Denver on a charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. His father, Mohammed Zazi, charged with lying to investigators, appeared with his son. He was freed under court supervision until his next court hearing, on Oct. 9.
Federal authorities said the younger Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan immigrant, plotted for more than a year to detonate homemade bombs and had recently bought bomb-making ingredients from beauty supply stores.
In July and August, according to court papers, Zazi bought unusually large amounts of hydrogen peroxide and acetone from beauty supply stores in the Denver area.
Documents said that on Sept. 6 and 7 Zazi tried to contact another person "seeking to correct mixtures of ingredients to make explosives."
The FBI has been making the case with a timeline of Zazi's every move:
* Starting on Aug, 28, 2008, when Zazi traveled to Pakistan from Newark Liberty Airport.
* On Jan. 15 he returned to the U.S. from Pakistan.
* On Feb. 3 Zazi applied for an airport shuttle license in Denver.
* On Sept. 10 he arrived in NYC.
* The next day, Sept. 11, the FBI search Zazi's rental car that had been towed for a parking violation, and then uncovered bomb making instruction on a laptop.
* On Sept. 14 the FBI and NYPD raided three homes in Queens and agents found Zazi's fingerprints.
"Clearly, Zazi is in a whole lot more trouble. He went from facing a relatively minor charge to a charge that involves life in prison," Denver trial attorney Craig Silverman said.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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