If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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Young traveled twice to Libya and was with rebels attempting to overthrow the Muammar Qaddafi regime. When Customs and Border Protection went through his baggage, they discovered a kevlar helmet, body armor and other “military-style” objects.
“None of the things that he said, none of the things he wanted to do related to anything here”. Following this, Young had a number of interactions with a confidential human source from the Federal Bureau of Investigation as well as undercover law enforcement officers. After Khalifi was taken into custody, Young told an undercover officer that Muslims should try to “uncover” the informants that helped secure Khalifi’s arrest. However, the agent doubted Young meant to act on his words, according to the documents. As police searched Young’s townhome in Fairfax on Wednesday, neighbor Dina Ahmad described him as standoffish and said he had occasional run-ins with the homeowners’ association over his cluttered front lawn.
He often worked on his auto at late hours, and the vehicle 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.
Authorities said that in the years they watched and interacted with Young, there never was any credible or specific threat to the Metro system.
Young had been a D.C. Metro Transit police officer since 2003.
“Obviously, the allegations in this case are profoundly disturbing. They’re disturbing to me, and they’re disturbing to everyone who wears the uniform”, Metro General Manager Paul J. Wiedefeld said in a statement, the Post reports.
Mr Young is the first law enforcement officer charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organisation, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Young is the seventh person this year to be charged in a terrorism-related case in Northern Virginia.
He was also allegedly an acquaintance of Amine El Khalifi, who later pleaded guilty to plotting a suicide bombing at the US Capitol Building in 2012.
At various points, according to the criminal complaint, Young told agents that he tortured animals as a child, had dressed up as Jihadi John at a 2014 Halloween party and also has dressed up as a Nazi and collected Nazi memorabilia. During one conversation with an undercover officer, Young said if he was ever betrayed by someone, “that person’s head would be in a cinder block at the bottom of” a lake. Young said, “u$3 nfortunately I have enough flags on my name that I can’t even buy a plane ticket without little alerts ending up in someone’s hands, so I imagine banking transactions are automatically monitored and will flag depending on what is going on”.
According to the indictment, Young was focused on activity overseas, not in the D.C. area.
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. Hughes said Young is significantly older than the average age of 26 associated with these charges.
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Young believed the informant was an acquaintance who was working with the militant group, the documents said.
