U.S.-German dual citizen arrested for attempting to firebomb U.S. Embassy in Israel
The Brief
A U.S.-German dual citizen was arrested for allegedly attempting to destroy a U.S. Embassy office in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The 28-year-old man was arrested in Israel and deported to the United States.
He was arrested by FBI special agents earlier today at John F. Kennedy Airport.
NEW YORK - A 28-year-old U.S.-German citizen was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport for allegedly attempting to destroy a branch office of theU.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel, federal prosecutors report.
What we know
Stated in a complaint unsealed today at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, JosephNeumayer arrived in Israel in April 2025 – he arrived outside the embassy branch office on May 19.
On that same day, Neumeyer posted on his Facebook account "join me this afternoon in Tel Aviv we are burning down the U.S. embassy," the complaint alleges. Neumeyer's social media accounts also contained posts that called for the assassination of President Donald Trump.
Neumeyer spat on an Embassy guard as he walked past, who attempted to detain him; breaking free, Neumeyer abandoned a backpack he had been carrying, which contained three rudimentary Molotov cocktails.
Law enforcement arrested him at his hotel after tracking him down. Israeli authorities returned Neumeyer to the United States on May 25.
According to the United States Department of Justice, Joseph Neumayer was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport by FBI special agents earlier today.
"This defendant is charged with planning a devastating attack targeting our embassy in Israel, threatening death to Americans and President Trump's life," said Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
Read through the full unsealed complaint below.
Click to open this PDF in a new window.
What's next
The FBI Washington Field Office is investigating this case with assistance from the FBI New York Field Office.
If convicted, Neumeyer faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years in prison, and a maximum fine in the amount of $250,000.
This arrest comes days after two Israeli Embassy staffers were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.
The Source
This article includes reporting from statements released by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
an hour ago
Pulse massacre survivors are set to revisit the nightclub before it's razed
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Survivors and family members of the 49 victims killed in the Pulse nightclub massacre nine years ago are getting their first chance Wednesday to walk through the long-shuttered, LGBTQ+-friendly Florida venue before it's razed and replaced with a permanent memorial to what was once the worst U.S. mass shooting in modern times. In small groups over four days, survivors and family members of those killed planned to spend a half hour inside the space where Omar Mateen opened fire during a Latin night celebration on June 12, 2016, leaving 49 dead and 53 wounded. Mateen, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, was killed after a three-hour standoff with police. At the time, it was the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history. The Pulse shooting's death toll was surpassed the following year when 58 people were killed and more than 850 injured among a crowd of 22,000 at a country music festival in Las Vegas. The city of Orlando purchased the Pulse property in 2023 for $2 million and plans to build a $12 million permanent memorial which will open in 2027. Those efforts follow a multiyear, botched attempt by a private foundation run by the club's former owner. The existing structure will be razed later this year. 'None of us thought that it would take nine years to get to this point and we can't go back and relitigate all of the failures along the way that have happened, but what we can do is control how we move forward together," Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said two weeks ago when county commissioners pledged $5 million to support the city of Orlando's plan. The opportunity to go inside the nightclub comes on the ninth anniversary of the mass shooting. Outside, over-sized photos of the victims, rainbow-colored flags and flowers have hung on fences in a makeshift memorial, and the site has attracted visitors from around the globe. But very few people other than investigators have been inside the structure. Around 250 survivors and family members of those killed have responded to the city's invitation to walk through the nightclub this week. Families of the 49 people who were killed can visit the site with up to six people in their group, and survivors can bring one person with them. The people invited to visit are being given the chance to ask FBI agents who investigated the massacre about what happened. They won't be allowed to take photos or video inside. Brandon Wolf, who hid in a bathroom as the gunman opened fire, said he wasn't going to visit, primarily because he now lives in Washington. He said he wanted to remember Pulse as it was before. 'I will say that the site of the tragedy is where I feel closest to the people who were stolen from me,' said Wolf, who now is national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, a LGBTQ+ advocacy group. 'For survivors, the last time they were in that space was the worst night possible. It will be really hard to be in that space again.' Mental health counselors planned to be on hand to talk to those who walk through the building. Survivors and family members had hoped to have a permanent memorial in place by now. But an earlier effort by a private foundation to build one floundered, and the organization disbanded in 2023. Barbara and Rosario Poma and businessman Michael Panaggio previously owned the property, and Barbara Poma was the executive director of the onePulse Foundation — the nonprofit that had been leading efforts to build a memorial and museum. She stepped down as executive director in 2022 and then left the organization entirely in 2023 amid criticism that she wanted to sell instead of donate the property. There were also complaints about the lack of progress despite millions of dollars being raised. The original project, unveiled in 2019 by the onePulse Foundation, called for a museum and permanent memorial costing $45 million. That estimate eventually soared to $100 million. The city of Orlando has since outlined a more modest proposal and scrapped plans for a museum. 'The building may come down, and we may finally get, a permanent memorial, but that doesn't change the fact that this community has been scarred for life,' Wolf said. 'There are people inside the community who still need and will continue to need support and resources.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Gangster tells BBC why India's biggest hip-hop star was murdered
It was a killing that shocked India: Punjabi hip-hop star Sidhu Moose Wala shot dead through the windscreen of his car by hired gunmen. Within hours, a Punjabi gangster named Goldy Brar had used Facebook to claim responsibility for ordering the hit. But three years after the murder, no-one has faced trial - and Goldy Brar is still on the run, his whereabouts unknown. Now, BBC Eye has managed to make contact with Brar and challenged him about how and why Sidhu Moose Wala became a target. His response was coldly articulate. "In his arrogance, he [Moose Wala] made some mistakes that could not be forgiven," Brar told the BBC World Service. "We had no option but to kill him. He had to face the consequences of his actions. It was either him or us. As simple as that." On a warm May evening in 2022, Sidhu Moose Wala was taking his black Mahindra Thar SUV for its usual spin through dusty lanes near his village in the northern Indian state of Punjab when, within minutes, two cars began tailing him. CCTV footage later showed them weaving through narrow turns, sticking close. Then, at a bend in the road, one of the vehicles lurched forward, cornering Moose Wala's SUV against a wall. He was trapped. Moments later, the shooting began. Mobile footage captured the aftermath. His SUV was riddled with bullets, the windscreen shattered, the bonnet punctured. In trembling voices, bystanders expressed their shock and concern. "Someone get him out of the car." "Get some water." "Moose Wala has been shot." But it was too late. He was declared dead on arrival at hospital - hit by 24 bullets, a post-mortem would later reveal. The 28-year-old rapper, one of modern-day Punjab's biggest cultural icons, had been gunned down in broad daylight. A cousin and a friend who had been in the car with Moose Wala at the time of the ambush were injured, but survived. Six gunmen were eventually identified. They carried AK-47s and pistols. In the weeks that followed the murder, about 30 people were arrested and two of the suspected armed men were killed in what the Indian police described as "encounters". Yet even with arrests piling up, the motive remained murky. Goldy Brar, who claims to have ordered the hit, wasn't in India at the time of the killing. He is believed to have been in Canada. Our conversation with him unfolded over six hours, pieced together through an exchange of voice notes. It gave us a chance to find out why Moose Wala had been killed and to interrogate the motives of the man who claimed responsibility. Sidhu Moose Wala was born Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu in a Jat-Sikh family in rural Punjab, before moving in 2016 to Canada to study engineering - a journey familiar to hundreds of thousands in the Punjabi diaspora. But it was there, far from his village of Moosa - the inspiration for his rap name - that he reinvented himself as one of Punjabi music's most influential artists. In just five years, Moose Wala became the unmistakable voice of Punjabi hip-hop. With his signature swagger, flashy style, and lyrical grit, Moose Wala sang openly about identity and politics, guns and revenge, pushing the boundaries of what Punjabi music had been willing to say. He was fascinated by rapper Tupac Shakur, who had been murdered, aged 25, in 1996. "In terms of personality, I want to be like him," Moose Wala once told an interviewer. "The day he died, people cried for him. I want the same. When I die, people should remember that I was someone." Over a brief but explosive career, the singer spotlighted the darker undercurrents of India's Punjab region - gangster culture, unemployment, and political decay - while evoking a deep nostalgia for village life. Moose Wala was also a global force. With more than five billion views of his music videos on YouTube, a Top 5 spot in the UK charts, and collaborations with international hip-hop artists including Burna Boy, Moose Wala swiftly built a fan base stretching across India, Canada, the UK and beyond, powered by a diaspora that saw him as both icon and insurgent. But fame came at a cost. Despite his rising star and socially conscious lyrics, Moose Wala was drifting into dangerous territory. His defiant attitude, visibility, and growing influence had drawn the attention of Punjab's most feared gangsters. These included Goldy Brar, and Brar's friend Lawrence Bishnoi, who even then was in high-security jail in India. Not much is known about Brar, apart from the fact he is on the Interpol Red Notice list, and is a key operative in a network of gangsters operated by Bishnoi – orchestrating hits, issuing threats and amplifying the gang's reach. It is thought he emigrated to Canada in 2017, just a year after Moose Wala himself, and initially worked as a truck driver. Bishnoi, once a student leader steeped in Punjab's violent campus politics, has grown into one of India's most feared criminal masterminds. "The first [police] cases filed against Lawrence Bishnoi were all related to student politics and student elections… beating a rival student leader, kidnapping him, harming him," according to Jupinderjit Singh, deputy editor of Indian newspaper the Tribune. This led to a spell in jail which hardened him further, says Gurmeet Singh Chauhan, Assistant Inspector General of the Anti-Gangster Task Force of Punjab Police. "Once he was in jail, he started to get deeper into crime. Then he formed a group of his own. When it became an inter-gang thing, he needed money for survival. They need more manpower, they need more weapons. They need money for all that. So, for money, you have to get into extortion or crime." Now 31, Bishnoi runs his syndicate from behind bars - with dedicated Instagram pages and a cult-like following. "So while Bishnoi sits in jail, Brar handles the gangs," says Assistant Inspector General Chauhan. Securing BBC Eye's exchange with Brar took a year of chasing - cultivating sources, waiting for replies, gradually getting closer to the kingpin himself. But when we got through to Brar, the conversation cast new light on the question of how and why he and Bishnoi came to see Moose Wala as an enemy. One of the first revelations was that Bishnoi's relationship with Moose Wala went back several years, long before the singer's killing. "Lawrence [Bishnoi] was in touch with Sidhu [Moose Wala]. I don't know who introduced them, and I never asked. But they did speak," said Brar. "Sidhu used to send 'good morning' and 'good night' messages in an effort to flatter Lawrence." A friend of Moose Wala's, who spoke anonymously, also told us that Bishnoi had been in touch with Moose Wala as early as 2018, calling him from jail and telling him he liked his music. Brar told us that the "first dispute" between them came after Moose Wala had moved back to India. It began with a seemingly innocuous match of kabbadi - a traditional South Asian contact team sport - in a Punjabi village. Moose Wala had promoted the tournament which was organised by Bishnoi's rivals - the Bambiha gang - Brar told us, in a sport where match-fixing and gangster influence are rampant. "That's a village our rivals come from. He was promoting our rivals. That's when Lawrence and others were upset with him. They threatened Sidhu and said they wouldn't spare him," Brar told BBC Eye. Yet the dispute between Moose Wala and Bishnoi was eventually resolved by an associate of Bishnoi's called Vicky Middhukhera. But when Middukhera himself was gunned down by gangsters in a parking lot in Mohali in August 2021, Brar told us Bishnoi's hostility towards Sidhu Moose Wala reached the point of no return. The Bambiha gang claimed responsibility for killing Middukhera. The police named Moose Wala's friend and sometime manager Shaganpreet Singh on the charge sheet, citing evidence that Singh had provided information and logistical support to the gunmen. Singh later fled India and is believed to be in Australia. Moose Wala denied any involvement. The Punjab police told the BBC there was no evidence linking Moose Wala to the killing or to any gang-related crime. But Moose Wala was friends with Shaganpreet Singh, and he was never able to shake off the perception that he was aligned with the Bambiha gang - a perception that may have cost him his life. Although he can cite no proof of Moose Wala's involvement, Brar remains convinced that the singer was somehow complicit in the killing of Middukhera. Brar repeatedly told us that Shaganpreet Singh had assisted the gunmen in the days before Middukhera's shooting - and inferred that Moose Wala himself must have been involved. "Everyone knew Sidhu's role, the police investigating knew, even the journalists who were investigating knew. Sidhu mixed with politicians and people in power. He was using political power, money, his resources to help our rivals," Brar told BBC Eye. "We wanted him to face punishment for what he'd done. He should have been booked. He should have been jailed. But nobody listened to our plea. "So we took it upon ourselves. When decency falls on deaf ears, it's the gunshot that gets heard." We put it to Brar that India has a judicial system and the rule of law - how could he justify taking the law into his own hands? "Law. Justice. There's no such thing," he says. "Only the powerful can... [obtain] justice, not ordinary people like us." He went on to say that even Vicky Middukhera's brother, despite being in politics, has struggled to get justice through India's judicial system. "He's a clean guy. He tried hard to get justice for his brother lawfully. Please call him and ask how that's going." He appeared unrepentant. "I did what I had to do for my brother. I have no remorse whatsoever." Outside the UK, watch on YouTube, or listen on The killing of Moose Wala has not just resulted in the loss of a major musical talent, it has also emboldened Punjab's gangsters. Before the singer's murder, few outside Punjab had heard of Bishnoi or Brar. After the killing, their names were everywhere. They hijacked Moose Wala's fame and converted it into their own brand of notoriety - a notoriety that became a powerful tool for extortion. "This is the biggest killing that has happened in the last few decades in Punjab," says Ritesh Lakhi, a Punjab-based journalist. "The capacity of gangsters to extort money has gone up. [Goldy Brar]'s getting huge sums of money after killing Moose Wala." Journalist Jupinderjit Singh agrees: "The fear factor around gangsters has risen amongst the public." Extortion has long been a problem in the Punjabi music industry, but now after Sidhu's murder, Singh says: "It's not just people in the music and film industry who are being extorted - even local businessmen are receiving calls." When BBC Eye quizzed Brar on this, he denied this was the motive, but died admit - in stark terms - that extortion was central to the gang's working. "To feed a family of four a man has to struggle all his life. We have to look after hundreds or even thousands of people who are like family to us. We have to extort people. "To get money," he says, "we have to be feared."
News24
an hour ago
- News24
Cape Town couple arrested on child porn charges allegedly abused their own children
A Bloubergstrand couple has been arrested for the alleged sexual abuse of their two daughters, aged 3 and 8. They have been accused of producing child pornography and other sexual offences. According to police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Amanda van Wyk, a multidisciplinary team comprising members of the national and Western Cape Serial and Electronic Crime Investigations (SECI) Units, and officials from the Department of Social Development (DSD), supported by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), arrested the 47-year-old woman and 48-year-old man in Bloubergstrand on Tuesday. They were found at a house identified through joint investigative efforts. They face multiple charges, including the production of CSAM (commonly referred to as child pornography), rape, sexual assault, and sexual grooming. The two children were rescued during the operation and have since been put in a place of safety. Several electronic devices were seized. Last month, the Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) seized assets, including a luxury vehicle and R647 300 in cash belonging to Darryn Wilken and his girlfriend, Tiona Megan Moodley. Investigations by various law enforcement agencies, including the US Secret Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), led to their arrests. The couple faces charges for allegedly running a child pornography website, offering material for sale internationally. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Phindi Mjonondwane said along with the cash and vehicle, the unit also seized high-end electronic equipment. 'It (Wilken's luxury vehicle) brazenly reflected a registration number 'KIDZ NA GP'. The luxury vehicle, high-end electronic equipment and R647 300 in cash were the subjects of the search and seizure warrant,' she said.
