When Things Went Awry

According to court documents, Shahzad’s finances were on the brink of collapse. He received close to $10,000 via a source in Pakistan to fund his attempted attack on Times Square, which included paying $1,300 in cash for the Nissan Pathfinder that contained homemade explosives.^[8] Shahzad also worked in conjunction with 44-year-old Mohammad Younis, convicted in September 2010 for running an illegal money transfer business between the U.S. and Pakistan.

Court documents stated that Younis met with Shahzad in Long Island three weeks before the attempted Times Square bombing. He helped Shahzad obtain $5,000 in funding via an unnamed co-conspirator in Pakistan who Shahzad believed to be with the Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP). The TTP is known to get its funding from the smuggling of cigarettes, electronics, counterfeit clothing, handbags, CDs, and DVDs by colluding with the Afghan Trade and Transit (ATT) association. The ATT is known to allow smuggled products into Pakistan by way of Afghanistan^[9] and take a fee in exchange for the service. Shahzad also received $7,000 from the same source through another money transfer agent in Long Island—Younis. While both men denied the charges, it was the facilitation of this funding that helped Shahzad collect the necessary tools to create and attempt to detonate a bomb in Times Square.