MIAMI (AP) - A Honduran man who pleaded guilty to plotting to detonate a bomb in a Florida mall food court in support of the Islamic State extremist group was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison.
A judge imposed the sentence for Vicente Solano on Friday in federal court in Miami. Federal prosecutors had asked for 20 years in prison.
The FBI says the 53-year-old Solano wanted to detonate a bomb last October at the Dolphin Mall near Miami but was actually working with undercover FBI operatives who gave him a fake bomb before his arrest.
Despite Solano’s claims of Islamic State sympathies, the FBI says no links to terrorist groups were found. Solano never had real explosives.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.