A former U.S. soldier was indicted by a grand jury in New York on Tuesday on charges of plotting an arson attack on the federal building that houses an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office.A federal grand jury indicted Army veteran Andrew Arrabaca on charges that he “used a flammable liquid to ignite a fire at the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in Manhattan, threw a firework into the fire that exploded, and lit fireworks at the Federal Building.” The incident outside the ICE facility occurred in late July after prosecutors said Arrabaca planned the firebombing for months. It caused injury to at least one person and “substantial risk of injury to other persons, including federal employees, security guards and emergency personnel responding to the fire,” the indictment read.
The former private has not yet entered a plea. An arraignment date was not immediately scheduled.Arrabaca, 43, was a mechanic on Patriot missile systems and was charged on July 21 with arson or explosion causing damage to U.S. government property, which carries a minimum sentence of seven years in prison. Aside from the ICE office, the federal building houses the FBI’s New York office. U.S. Attorney Samantha Fry said Arrabaca understood his actions could have harmed others and that he was willing to accept his own death in carrying out the attack.The New York City Fire Department and law enforcement respond to an incendiary device outside the New York federal building in lower Manhattan, Monday, July 20, 2026, in New York. (Larry Neumeister/AP Photo)
