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2025-10-09 13:02:20

National Guardsman Planned American Caliphate on Discord, Sent 3D Printed Guns to Al Qaeda, Feds Say

The FBI accused a former National Guardsman living in Tulsa, Oklahoma of trying to sell 3D printed guns to Al Qaeda. According to an indictment unsealed by the Justice Department in September, 25-year-old Andrew Scott Hastings used a Discord server to plan a Caliphate in America and shipped more than 100 3D printed machine gun conversion kits to an undercover FBI operative who claimed he had contacts in the terrorist organization.
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The Army Times first reported the story after the DOJ unsealed the charging documents. According to the court records, Hastings first landed on the radar of authorities in 2019 when a co-worker at an Abuelo’s restaurant in Tulsa called the police to report he’d been talking about blowing things up. When the cops interviewed Hastings, he told them he was just interested in chemistry and The Anarchist’s Cookbook. In 2020, the cops interviewed his mom. “Hastings’ mother, Terri, told TPD that her son was on the [autism] spectrum, was socially active online, and had converted to Islam.”

According to Terri, odd incidents piled up. She said that someone mailed Hastings a Quran, that he’d once received an order of chicken wings paid for by someone in Indonesia, and that he’d once threatened his family with a can of gasoline. “She also mentioned an incident in the family home where Hastings became enraged when she cooked bacon, and thereafter called someone she described as his ‘handler,’” according to court records.

The charging documents said the FBI got involved in 2024 because of a Discord server called “ARMY OF MUHAMMAD.” Discord cooperated with the FBI investigation and granted access to some of Hastings’ records to authorities. The FBI alleged that Hastings met with several other people on the Discord server and plotted terror attacks against Americans. At this time, Hastings worked for the National Guard as an aircraft powertrain repairer and held a SECRET-level national security clearance.

The charging documents detailed Hastings' alleged plot to establish a caliphate in the US via Discord. “[T]he most important theater right now is cyberspace…we need an actionable plan we can start work on--something slow and Ling(sic) term not hasty and slapdash,” Hastings allegedly said on Discord. “I think it would be best if we create a channel and I’ll list a physical training routine.”

“If we get 9-10 guys maybe inshaAllah we can …we could put headquarters in the USA cuz yk [you know] if we are fighting them the military is prohibited from operations on the homeland only ntnal [sic] guard and agencies can operate within borders…[y]ou need to contest air land and cyberspace…what my plan addresses is how to contest all of these at once while providing more aid than harm we can do in collateral and taking out targets of higher strength.”

According to the FBI’s version of events, Hastings talked about moving the group off of Discord and onto Signal because he believed Discord wasn’t secure. He also bragged about police interrogating him about explosives and “claimed to have made a firearm and discussed making a nuclear rocket.”

“We don’t want democracy lol,” he said on Discord, according to court records. “We want caliphate”

Hastings talked about other groups he was in contact with on Signal, offered to make training videos about weapon handling, and told others on the Discord server that he knew how to make firearms and was willing to ship them to like-minded militants. “I already have some small arms components partially finished and nearly ready to issue,” he said, according to the charging document. “I’ll send one photo but wanna remain kinda anonymous.”

The FBI said it slipped an “Online Covert Employee” (OCE) into Hastings’ life on March 26, 2025. Posing as a person on eBay, the FBI employee told Hastings he had contacts with Al Qaeda. “The OCE then recommended they move the conversation to Telegram or Signal, the latter of which Hastings said did not even have ‘a backdoor,’ meaning it could not be hacked or intercepted by law enforcement.”

The issue, of course, is that Hastings was speaking with an FBI employee. Over the next few months, Hastings spoke with the OCE about using a 3D printer to manufacture weapons for them with the eventual goal of getting them in the hands of Al Qaeda. Hastings allegedly told the OCE that he’d been discharged from the military and needed to make money.

In the summer of 2025, the FBI alleged that Hastings started mass printing Glock parts and switch conversion kits for Al Qaeda. “Hastings told the OCE he was moving out of his parent’s home in July 2025 after they complained about the noise and smell created when he 3D printed weapons,” the court documents said. The FBI allegedly has video of Hastings at a post office shipping multiple packages that summer that authorities said contained more than 100 3D printed switches, two 3D printed lower receivers for a Glock, and one 3D printed Glock slide.

The FBI has charged Hastings with attempting to provide material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organizations and illegal possession or transfer of a machinegun. The Justice Department considers every single 3D conversion kit Hastings shipped an individual machinegun, even when they’re not installed.

Former Guardsman charged with trying to provide weapons to al-Qaida

A 25-year-old former Army National Guardsman faces federal charges that he attempted to provide al-Qaida with 3D-printed weapons.

^{Todd South (Army Times)}