(NECN/AP) - A Massachusetts man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison in a plot to use remote-controlled model planes packed with explosives to blow up the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.
Rezwan Ferdaus of Ashland was sentenced Thursday in federal court after pleading guilty in July to attempting to provide material support to terrorists and attempting to damage and destroy federal buildings with an explosive.
Ferdaus was arrested last year after federal employees posing as members of al-Qaida delivered materials he requested, including grenades, machine guns and plastic explosives.
Authorities have said the public was never in danger because the explosives were always under the control of federal agents.
The 27-year-old grew up in Massachusetts and has a physics degree from Northeastern University.
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