Enrique Marquez Jr., charged with terrorism conspiracy and supplying weapons in the Dec. 2 terrorist shooting in San Bernardino, “had ties” with a group of Southern California men that the FBI arrested in 2012 for plotting to travel to Afghanistan and join al-Qaida.

The FBI has previously said agents could not find a connection between the Riverside man and the other group, who all lived in the Inland area.

The revelation was in a paragraph about half way through a complaint for forfeiture the U.S. Attorney’s office filed Tuesday, May 31, to seize $275,000 in life insurance payments to beneficiary Rafia Farook, the mother of Syed Rizwan Farook. He died in a shootout with police after the attack at the Inland Regional Center that killed 14 and wounded 22.

Part of the document describes the alleged plotting in 2011 and 2012 between Marquez and Farook, who was then his neighbor in Riverside, to attack the Riverside City College campus and the 91 Freeway with guns and bombs.

“During this period, Marquez had ties to a group of jihadists (“California jihadists”) who were arrested in 2012 when they attempted to travel to Afghanistan to join” al-Qaida, the document says.

“The paperwork speaks for itself,” FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said Wednesday, June 1.

The California group that the court document referred to were Ralph Kenneth Deleon and Sohiel Omar Kabir, who were tried and convicted in their cases.

Two other men, Arifeen David Gojali and Miguel Alejandro Santana Vidriales, entered pleas before trial began. The men were accused of a plot that started in 2010 to kill American soldiers overseas after traveling to Afghanistan and linking with al-Qaida. Kabir, a U.S. citizen, was already in Afghanistan by July 2012 to make connections for the other three men.

The FBI previously said that their arrests caused Marquez and Farook to abandon plans for the terrorist attacks at Riverside City College and on the 91.

Marquez was the alleged illegal straw buyer of two assault-type rifles for those attacks; they were instead used by Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, in the Dec. 2 San Bernardino shooting.

The Redlands couple died the same day in a shootout with police.

Marquez is in custody and awaiting trial. He has pleaded not guilty to five counts, including conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Federal agents said Marquez did not know about the Dec. 2 attacks.

Kabir, of Pomona, and Deleon, of Ontario, were sentenced to 25 years in federal prison. Their cases are on appeal. Santana, of Upland, was sentenced to 10 years and Gojali, of Riverside, to five years.