The FBI targeted Imran Mandhai in a sting that used two informants — Howard Gilbert and Ellie Assaad. Mandhai had asked Gilbert to provide him with weapons training. Gilbert then introduced Mandhai to Assaad, who was posing as an Al Qaeda operative. Assaad agreed to provide Mandhai with a bomb to attack a National Guard armory and a power substation in South Florida. Mandhai had tried to recruit Adnan El Shukrijumah, who would later leave the United States and join Al Qaeda, to join the plot, but he refused. Mandhai was deported to Pakistan following his prison sentence.