SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Three Americans repatriated to the United States from Congo this week have been charged with participating in an elaborate coup attempt aimed at overthrowing the African nation’s government last year, the U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday.

The men are also alleged to have hijacked a bus and raided a police station to obtain weapons for the deadly attack.

Malanga told a Congolese judge that his father threatened to kill him if he did not follow his orders.

“We’re about to go take out some terrorists,” Malanga is alleged to have told a friend he was recruiting to go to Africa. The friend is not named in the complaint.

Justice Department: Coup attempt was the result of a months-in-the-making plot

The complaint provides the most detailed chronicle to date of the planned May 2024 overthrow of Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi. At least six people, including Christian Malanga, died when armed men in camouflage fatigues led an attack on the homes of the president and a deputy prime minister.

The charging document makes clear that the alleged coup was the result of a months-in-the-making plot rather than a haphazard idea, with the men accused of recruiting friends in the U.S., acquiring a drone and military-style weapons and also participating in extensive firearms training. The men are also alleged to have hijacked a bus and raided a police station to obtain weapons for the deadly attack.

Malanga told a Congolese judge that his father threatened to kill him if he did not follow his orders.

“We’re about to go take out some terrorists,” Malanga is alleged to have told a friend he was recruiting to go to Africa. The friend is not named in the complaint.

Other friends told The Associated Press that Malanga had offered up to $100,000 to join him on a mysterious “security job” in Congo.

Prosecutors are seeking to keep all four men in jail as the case moves forward.

“The four defendants pose an extreme danger to the community and present an unmanageable risk of flight,” the Justice Department said in a detention memo.

It notes that Moesser, a longtime associate of Christian Malanga, faced allegations of criminal conduct years earlier when he was accused of trying to place explosive black powder on an plane departing from the Salt Lake City airport. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to a form of probation.

Prosecutors say defendants include a drone specialist and bomb-making expert

Thompson, a friend and former high school football teammate of Marcel Malanga in Utah, is identified in court documents as a drone specialist who prosecutors say shopped for a flamethrower attachment that he planned to use to “light people on fire.” His family has said he flew to Africa for what they believed was his first vacation abroad, paid for by Christian Malanga.

Witnesses observed Thompson and the younger Malanga conducting drone test flights and firing handguns and rifles at a shooting range near Salt Lake City before they left for Africa, according to the complaint.

Moesser allegedly helped Thompson and Malanga install the flamethrower attachment and showed them how to use drones to drop pipe bombs. Messages obtained by investigators show Moesser conspiring with Christian Malanga to ship explosives and AR-15 rifles to Congo, the complaint said.

Zalman-Polun reportedly traveled to Utah to help Malanga recruit soldiers for their rebel army. If the plot had been successful, Zalman-Polun would have become Christian Malanga’s chief of staff or would “work in finance” in the new administration, court documents say.

The complaint also places three of the defendants at the scene itself, using images and posts from the men’s social media accounts, including livestream videos that Christian Malanga recorded.