A former U.S. Navy sailor pleaded guilty in federal court to plotting an attack on Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, Illinois, allegedly on behalf of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to officials.
Xuanyu Harry Pang, 38, of North Chicago, pleaded guilty on Nov. 5, 2024, to conspiring to and attempting to damage or destroy national defense materials, premises, and utilities to obstruct U.S. national defense.
The plea was entered in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and unsealed today.
Court records show that in summer 2021, Pang discussed assisting Iranian operatives in planning an attack to avenge the U.S. killing of Qasem Soleimani, a senior IRGC Quds Force general, in 2020.
The Quds Force is the IRGC branch responsible for operations outside Iran.
Pang’s contact in Colombia introduced him to an undercover FBI employee posing as a Quds Force affiliate.
While stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes, Pang used encrypted messaging to suggest possible attack targets, including the naval base and other sites in Chicago.
In fall 2022, Pang met three times with another FBI source posing as a Quds Force associate.
During two meetings in Lake Bluff, Illinois, Pang showed photos and videos of Naval Station Great Lakes and provided two U.S. military uniforms for use during the attack, along with a cellphone to test as a detonator.
Pang remains in custody pending sentencing and faces up to 20 years in prison, officials stated.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Aaron Bond, Vikas Didwania, and Brandon Stone for the Northern District of Illinois and Trial Attorneys John Cella and Charles Kovats of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.