For years, authorities had concerns about Metro Transit Police Officer Nicholas Young: He traveled to Libya and boasted of joining rebel groups there, and he even described his collection of Nazi memorabilia to law enforcement, according to court documents.
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Last month, Young allegedly took action.
The charge is based on the allegation that Young bought gift cards worth $245 and sent their code numbers to someone he believed had joined ISIS in Syria, to help the group pay for mobile phone messaging with its supporters in the West.
The FBI then posed as the informant, taking over communications with Young.
During the brief appear in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Young still wore his police uniform trousers plus a white T-shirt that exposed his tattoos. A magistrate appointed a public defender to represent Young after he requested a court-appointed attorney. It’s also unclear when the suspect will be appearing in court, though terrorism suspects often have an initial court appearance within hours of their arrest.
Young faces 20 years in prison if convicted. The DOJ also reported that baggage searches revealed Young traveled with several military-style items, including body armor and a kevlar helmet. During that interview, Young allegedly told the officer he dressed up as “Jihadi John” for a Halloween party in 2014, complete with an orange jumpsuit stuffed with paper meant to mimic a headless hostage, according to the affidavit.
There never was any credible or specific threat to the Metro system, authorities said.
Young was terminated upon his arrest, Metro spokesman Dan Stessel told WTOP.
He often worked on his vehicle at late hours, and the auto was adorned with anti-Israel bumper stickers, she said.
“We knew something was weird about him”, Ahmad tells CBS News.
The rise of IS “seems to have pushed him from just radical to mobilized to action”, he said.
On about 20 separate occasions in 2014, Young met with the Federal Bureau of Investigation informant, who posed as a US military reservist of Middle Eastern descent and said he wanted to travel overseas to join the Islamic State.
According to WMATA General Manager Paul Wiedefeld, Metro fired Young immediately upon his arrest this morning.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Young has been employed as a police officer with the Metro Transit Police Department since 2003.
The report also indicates in 2015, Young asked the undercover agent how to send money overseas.
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Young, of Fairfax, Virginia, was first interviewed in 2010 in connection to an associate who had been arrested and pled guilty to aiding a foreign terrorist organization, according to the DOJ release. El Khalifi later pleaded guilty to charges related to his plan to carry out a suicide bomb attack on the US Capitol Building. Young said that CHS had left the United States to go on a vacation tour in Turkey approximately one year ago.
