BREAKING NEWS: FBI Arrest 22 Year-Old In Wrigleyville Bomb Plot

22-year-old Sami Samir Hassoun, a Chicago man, was arrested Sunday for planning to carry out a bombing outside busy Wrigleyville night spots.

In a news release Monday, the FBI said that Hassoun had begun expressing to an “associate” that he wished to commit acts of violence for financial gain and to cause “political transformation in Chicago.” What Hassoun did not know, was that his associate was actually assisting with the investigation and cooperating with the FBI.

Having expressed to his associate in June, his wish to be violent in the city, he had not chosen a location until recently, when he chose a strip of Wrigleyville bars and nightclubs. The FBI stated he intended to “utilize an explosive device which he would detonate on a weekend night to inflict maximum damage.”

Once Hassoun had decided to carry out the attack, the associate introduced him to an undercover federal agent he believed would provide him with explosives. However, what he was given was only meant to look real, but in reality was made of inert materials and unable to explode.

The plan continued until Sunday, when Hassoun and the agent rented a vehicle and proceeded to the selected drop-off site. Upon placing the fake explosive in a trash container a block south of Wrigley Field on the corner of Eddy and Clark Streets, Hassoun was arrested and the fake device recovered.

At the time of the would-be attack, concert-goers were leaving a Dave Matthews Band performance.