Did a Bolingbrook Woman Help Arrange a Hit on a Federal Judge?

A Bolingbrook woman reportedly gave an envelope full of $100 bills to an undercover FBI agent. That money was a down payment for a hit man to knock off an out-of-state federal judge. But did the woman know that?

That’s what authorities are investigating.

Yahya Farooq Mohammad, 38, is accused of conspiring to send money to an al-Qaeda leader in 2009, according to a report from the Chicago Tribune. While he was awaiting trial, he was indicted on charges “alleging he tried to (hire) a hit man to kidnap and murder U.S. District Judge Jack Zouhary of the Northern District of Ohio,” according to the paper.

Mohammad arranged for a Bolingbrook relative to make a down payment of $1,000 to an undercover FBI agent, who Mohammad thought was a real hit man, the Tribune said. She met the agent outside a Bolingbrook postal facility May 5 and gave him the money.

On May 16, the woman and the agent met again. The agent showed the woman a "doctored image portraying (the judge) deceased with multiple gunshot wounds to the head” and demanded payment, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The woman reportedly believed the payment was for a “business investment,” according to the report and “immediately called her attorney” after seeing the doctored photo.

The Bolingbrook woman has not yet been charged and authorities are investigating whether she truly had knowledge of Mohammad’s plan. The woman’s home was searched in May.

More via the Chicago Tribune...