NEW YORK (CBS) -- We're learning more about the Bangladeshi man accused of trying to bomb the Federal Reserve building in New York City as investigators look to see if more people were involved.
Outside the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, there are no signs of extra security after the building was the target of an alleged terror plot. Quazi Nafis, 21, is accused of trying to blow up the building which holds a large reserve of gold. Investigators are looking to see if more people were involved.
Former FBI deputy director and CBS News correspondend John Miller says, "What they are looking for who did he tell, what did he tell them and when did they know it."
Nafis came to the United States on a student Visa in January to study at Southeast Missouri State University. The FBI says it started watching him in July after he tried setting up a terror cell online. That's when agents began a sting operation. NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says, "He comes here with the again the avowed purpose of committing some sort of jihad here in the United States."
On Wednesday, the FBI says Nafis tried to use a cell phone to detonate a 1,000 pound bomb in front of the bank but the FBI made sure the bomb was harmless.
Nafis is a banker's son from a middle class neighborhood in Bangladesh. His family says he is the victim of a racist conspiracy. But the FBI says he was a Jihadist who recorded a video claiming responsibility for the attack in the name of Al Qaeda. Miller says, "He alleged to already have al-Qaeda contacts from overseas. Were those contacts real? Did he launch himself here on a self-propelled plot or was he sent?"
Wednesday night federal agents carried boxes of evidence from his apartment hoping to learn more.
Nafis faces life in prison for attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.