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Abdurrahman Issam Qadan, 26, was stopped at 1 a.m. walking along Route 17M by the entrance to ShopRite Plaza.
While talking to Qadan, the officer realized that the subject was acting very suspicious and was making statements that he had affiliations with ISIS, police said.
He also told officers that he lived in Oregon and was on his way to LaGuardia Airport in a car driven by a girlfriend, but they had gotten into an argument, at which time he got out of the car with his belongings which were in a duffle bag.
The officer asked where the duffle bag was and he said he had placed it behind the Mobil Gas Station next to an oil tank and that the bag contained explosives. Qadan added that he had planned to place the bag with the explosives in the LaGuardia Airport but when he got out of the car he decided to dispose of the bag behind the gas station, police said.
He warned officers not to go near the bag because the explosives would detonate. Officers did observe a duffle bag leaning against the oil tank at the Mobil Gas Station and a laptop computer and cell phone were also located nearby, police said.
The New York State Police Bomb Unit was called in and a perimeter was set up and portions of Route 17M and Route 208 were closed for safety reasons. Once the Bomb Squad arrived on scene and conducted a search of the items, they determined the items in question did not contain any explosive devices, police said.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations Joint Terrorist Task Force (JTTF) was contacted and responded to Monroe Police Headquarters. Investigators from the JTTF and Monroe Police detectives interviewed the Qadan who admitted that he lied about having any explosives.
Qadan was arrested by Monroe police and charged with falsely reporting an incident, making terroristic threats and criminal possession of a controlled substance. He is being held at the Orange County Jail.
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