A 36-year-old Washington transit police officer was on Wednesday arrested on charges of attempting to help the Islamic State.
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[Young] threatened FBI agents, gave advice to suspected terrorists and mused about joining the Islamic State.[He] sent codes for mobile messaging cards to an undercover federal agent in the belief that they would be used by Islamic State fighters overseas to communicate.
According to CNN, Young will make his first appearance in court later Wednesday. Other than requesting a court-appointed attorney, Young said little else during the hearing, which lasted less than five minutes.
If convicted, Young could face up to 20 years in prison.
The FBI said that Young had travelled in 2011 to Libya to fight with rebels trying to overthrow President Muammar Gaddafi. The search uncovered he had traveled with body armor, a Kevlar helmet, and “several other military-style items”, according to the criminal complaint.
Young has been under surveillance since 2010, according to the affidavit that accompanied his arrest.
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 the Islamic State “seems to have pushed him from just radical to mobilised to action”, he said.
A spokesman with the FBI Washington Field Office referred questions about specifics of the case to the USA attorney’s office in Alexandria, Virginia.
“Obviously, the allegations in this case are profoundly disturbing”.
The case has been called “profoundly disturbing” by other officials who are closely involved and the DC Metro agency is said to have worked closely with the Federal Bureau of Investigation to ensure Young’s arrest.
Over the next several years Young had numerous interactions with undercover law enforcement officers, and a cooperating witness regarding Young’s knowledge or interest of terrorist related activity.
Young is the seventh person this year to be charged in a terrorism-related case in Northern Virginia.
Young was also friends with Amine El Khalifi, who was arrested for plotting a suicide bombing at the U.S. Capitol in 2012, court papers say. He is the first US police officer to face a terror-related charge.
Seamus Hughes, an expert on United States extremism at George Washington University in Washington, called the case against Young typical of those brought against homegrown extremists since it involved an informant.
Young was discovered to be sending money to people he believed to be associated with ISIS. He had been a Metro officer since 2003. Then he showed them a tattoo of a Imperial German eagle on his neck and said he collected Nazi memorabilia and dressed up as Nazis, according to an Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit.
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Ahmad tells the Post she was surprised that Young was a police officer. The reports state Young said he couldn’t buy a plane ticket without any “alerts” happening.
