[10] In July 2012, Deleon and two others were persuaded to join the Taliban, and later Al Qaeda, and began to train by playing paintball and firing AK-47s.
[13] In November 2012, three people, including Deleon, were arrested while driving to Mexico, where they were to begin their flights to Afghanistan,[14] where they had planned to conduct jihad, and become shaheed.
[6] In November 2012, three people, including Deleon, were charged in the United States District Court in Riverside.
[5] Another person connected to the plot was detained in Afghanistan;[6][11] he was held as an enemy combatant before being sent to the United States to face prosecution.
[16] Lawyers for Deleon and the other men arrested with him said that after the Boston Marathon bombing, their clients faced additional challenges due to their similarities to the Tsarnaev brothers, and the widespread negative perceptions the general public holds against them.
[21] The Council on American-Islamic Relations questioned the use of informants in the prosecution's investigation of Deleon and others, claiming it can entrap suspects.
[25] In early 2016, the FBI began to look into ties between the "Inland Empire Cell" and individuals connected to the 2015 San Bernardino attack.