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Michigan man who stockpiled weapons also had al-Qaeda recruiter's CDs

A search of Sebastian Gregerson's home found weapons and CDs with al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar Al-Awlaki's messages on them.
Anwar al-Awlaki in a propaganda video distributed in 2010 on pro-jihadist sites (Photo via AP Photo)

A man in Michigan who was charged with illegally buying weapons and explosives has alleged links to al-Qaeda, the Detroit News reported on Sunday.

Sebastian Gregerson, 29, was arrested on Sunday after he swapped a gun for several grenades with an undercover agent.

When federal investigators searched Gregerson's home, they found seven rifles, two handguns, a hatchet, 20 knives including machetes and thousands of ammunition rounds, according to prosecutors.

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During recorded phone conversations with the undercover agent, Gregerson reportedly talked about making homemade grenades and considered ways to attack buildings and law enforcement.

Investigators say they also found a number of CDs with al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki's name on them. Al-Awlaki was an American imam who joined the terror network in Yemen, and became al-Qaeda's number one propagandist. Although he was killed in a CIA drone strike in 2011, his lessons on YouTube and CD have outlived him and continue to wield considerable influence.

Related: Killing Anwar al-Awlaki with a drone strike was legal, and that's scary

"When you look through most of the cases of individuals who get arrested for terrorism charges, the vast majority had al-Awlaki on their laptops," Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University's Program on Extremism told The Detroit News.

Gregerson's defense attorney David Tholen argued that his client should be released on bond, because the undercover agent hadn't provided sufficient information to tie him to the terror network, Reuters reports. "The government is overstating its case," Tholen said.

But prosecutors successfully convinced the US Magistrate Judge presiding over the case that Gregerson posed a danger to the public, and he should be held in custody until his trial.

Reuters contributed to this report