Alleged Nafis co-conspirator arrested for child pornography

A man federal authorities say plotted with a former Southeast Missouri State University student to blow up the Federal Reserve in New York is accused on child pornography charges, The Associated Press reported.

Howard Willie Carter II was arraigned Thursday in federal court in San Diego on three counts of child pornography. He pleaded not guilty.

Investigators discovered child porn on Carter's computer after he communicated online with Nafis.

The official who reported the information to The Associated Press was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Carter wasn't charged in the bomb plot, but he's listed as an unnamed co-conspirator in the federal complaint against Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis.

Nafis was a student at Southeast during the spring semester, when he was enrolled to study cybersecurity. He was admitted despite bad grades from a school in his home country of Bangladesh, and placed on academic probation.

Nafis transferred at the end of the semester and went to New York, where undercover agents assisted Nafis in developing and carrying out a plot to bomb the Federal Reserve. The explosives used were fakes, and Nafis was arrested trying to set them off, according to a federal criminal complaint.