A man allegedly hired a contract killer to murder his wife and her boyfriend. The hitman turned out to be an undercover U.S. agent.

A Boston man offered to pay a total of $8,000 to someone he thought was a contract killer, but who was actually an undercover federal agent, to have his estranged wife and her new boyfriend killed, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Mohammed Chowdhury, 46, was held at an initial hearing on a murder-for-hire charge in federal court on Tuesday pending a detention hearing scheduled for Friday, the U.S. attorney's office in Boston said in a statement.

An email seeking comment was sent to his federal public defender.