Erwin Antonio Rios, a North Carolina man, pleaded guilty on Tuesday in U.S. District Court for possessing a stolen firearm as part of a personal jihad to kill U.S. Army soldiers, the Associated Press reported.
Rios admitted guilt as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. FBI Special Agent Frank Brostrom said Rios, 19, holds extremist Islamic views and told a government informant he would like to kill Fort Bragg soliders, news reports said.
Authorities also said that the jihadist also had plans to travel overseas to commit violence and devised a scheme to commit armed robberies to get money to buy weapons.
Rios was arrested after the FBI set up a sting operation where bought what he was told was stolen handgun, and was quickly handcuffed by authorities.
In April, officials commented that in their investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings, Tamerlan Tsarnaev frequently looked at extremist sites, including Inspire Magazine, an English-language online publication produced by al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate. The magazine endorses lone-wolf terror attacks.
The Tsarnaev brothers have been accused and charged with setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people, wounding more than 260 during the Boston Marathon on April 15.
