Robert Ciccolo Curry.edu A Massachusetts man has been charged in connection with an alleged plot to set off pressure-cooker bombs on behalf of the Islamic State militant group, the Department of Justice said on Monday.

ABC reports that the man, Alexander Ciccolo, is the estranged son of a respected Boston police captain.

"Ciccolo’s father is Boston police Captain Robert Ciccolo, a veteran commander assigned to Operations at Boston Police headquarters who was one of the first responders to the deadly Boston Marathon bombing in April 2013," ABC reports.

Ciccolo, 23, was arrested on July 4 on the charge of the unlawful receipt of multiple guns, the DOJ said. NBC reports that the elder Ciccolo alerted the FBI about his son.

"Ciccolo was arrested immediately after taking delivery of the firearms, which included a Colt AR-15 .223 caliber rifle, a SigArms Model SG550-1 556 caliber rifle, a Glock 17- 9mm pistol and a Glock 20-10 mm pistol," the DOJ stated. "Ciccolo had previously been convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in jail and therefore was prohibited from possessing firearms."

Prior to his arrest, Ciccolo is alleged to have told a witness that he planned to purchase a pressure cooker similar to that used in the Boston bombings, prosecutors said. Ciccolo allegedly said that he was interested in carrying out an ISIS-inspired attack on a highly populated public space, "such as college cafeterias."

Ciccolo allegedly told the cooperating witness that he planned on filling a pressure cooker with "black powder, nails, ball bearings and glass," the DOJ reports.

After Ciccolo's arrest, federal agents conducted a search of his apartment. The agents found "partially constructed" Molotov cocktails that contained a mixture of Styrofoam pieces and motor oil.

The DOJ states that Ciccolo had told the cooperating witness previously that he believed such a mixture would "stick to people’s skin and make it harder to put the fire out."

“This is a very bad person arrested before he could do very bad things,” one senior federal official briefed on the arrest told ABC News.

(Reuters reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir)