Four people the feds believed to be in contact with the New Orleans terrorists Shamsood-Dean Jabbar weren’t helping him plant bombs around the French Quarter…they were party people looking for their next drink.
Federal sources tell TMZ … the mayhem began when investigators viewed surveillance video from the Bourbon Street area and spotted 3 men and a woman looking inside two refrigerators that Jabbar had placed improvised explosive devices in… leading to theories that Jabbar was not acting alone.
Our sources say investigators eventually determined that the men weren’t terrorists at all…rather, they were tourists checking the fridges to see if there was booze inside.
When they didn’t find what they were looking for, they left and left the explosives undisturbed. The feds now believe these men had no idea they were looking at explosives, possibly drunk.
Our sources also say the FBI now has multiple cell phones belonging to Jabbar … and the hope is that those devices may shed light on his ISIS radicalization.
Our sources say the feds have already put together a timeline… Jabbar went to a gun store in Houston on December 31st but didn’t buy anything and also spent part of his New Year’s Eve at a gun range.
TMZ.com
Jabbar rented the Ford pickup truck he used in the attack and got an Airbnb in New Orleans on NYE … he planned to detonate the bombs with a trigger device.
