An Afghan native facing terrorism charges planned to bomb a target in New York on the anniversary of the terrorists attacks of September 11, 2001, a federal prosecutor said Friday.

Najibullah Zazi gets off an NYPD helicopter in New York on Friday. He was taken to a Brooklyn detention center.

Najibullah Zazi intended to be in New York "with the intent of using" a bomb on September 11, federal prosecutor Tim Neff said during a court hearing Friday.

A federal judge ordered Zazi to remain in custody at the hearing. A few hours later, he left Colorado for New York, where a grand jury indicted him on one count of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against unspecified targets in the United States.

Bill Muller of the U.S. attorney's office said Zazi's arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Prosecutors said in court that Zazi had been to Pakistan three or four times in the last decade and that he traveled to Canada twice.

Investigators said Zazi plotted to make bombs from household chemicals. He made several recent purchases from beauty supply stores in suburban Denver, Colorado, employees said Thursday.

Zazi was "a regular" at the Beauty Supply Warehouse here, one store worker said. 

Another worker, who identified himself only as Oscar, said Zazi had made several recent purchases and told workers he had "a lot of girlfriends."

Employees at several beauty supply stores in Aurora told CNN that federal agents visited their stores as part of the investigation, which led to Zazi's arrest Saturday. Some visits by federal agents were as recent as last week, they said.

Federal agents visited at least two other stores in recent weeks, workers at those stores told CNN, while a third said it had received phone calls from the FBI. Store workers said agents showed them photographs of several people during one visit, and a worker at one store said he recognized Zazi after seeing pictures of him on television.

Video from Beauty Supply Warehouse in Aurora from July 25 and August 28 show a man believed to be Zazi in the store. In the first video, the man is seen at the checkout counter putting a hydrogen peroxide product bottle on the counter, while the rest of the bottles are in his cart. He also purchases hair rollers and pins and a shower cap.

The second video shows the same man walking up and down a store aisle until he reaches some hydrogen peroxide product bottles. He puts a dozen of them into his shopping cart.

Receipts from the store show that CNN obtained show that the man bought six bottles of peroxide in July, and a dozen in August. The store said it provided the same receipts to the FBI.

Beauty Supply Warehouse CEO Karan Hoss tells CNN he also voluntarily provided the two surveillance videos to the FBI. He said they approached his store last week.

"They asked, 'Have you had any customers buying large numbers of hydrogen peroxide?' " he said.

Hoss said his staff examined its records and found they had video surveillance that appeared to correspond to the sales in question.

If convicted, the 24-year-old Zazi faces a potential sentence of life in prison.

"We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted, but as always, we remind the American public to be vigilant and to report any suspicious activity to law enforcement," Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement.

Read the rest of the Story