A 44-year-old New Yorker has been arrested for attempting to provide the terrorist group ISIS with material support and resources. Arafat M. Nagi, a resident of Lackawanna, N.Y., could face up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if found guilty.
Nagi who has been previously accused of threatening to behead his daughter, travelled to Turkey twice to try and join the ISIS, according to the Department of Justice. "Unfortunately this is yet another occasion when the worldwide fight against international terrorism has returned to Western New York," U.S. Attorney William J. Hochul Jr. said during a press conference, reports Fox News.
Nagi has been identified by the FBI as "a person previously convicted of terrorism offenses who is cooperating with the government," according to the DOJ complaint.
"Nagi espoused violent jihad and constituted a threat to those in the United States," residents of the Lackawanna community have told authorities, Hochul said. Nagi's Twitter account was riddled with thousands of Arabic tweets proclaiming support for ISIS, the FBI said, reports Breitbart.
In 2012, Nagi "purchased a tactical vest, army combat shirt, body armor, Shahada [jihadist] flag, and combat boots," in preparation for his first journey to the Middle East. He later acquired a tactical hunting knife, machete, night vision goggles and other combat items, the FBI complaint said, according to Brietbart.
Nagi posted about ISIS being "victorious," as well as pictures of beheadings, executions and decapitated heads. "Today, this filth has been killed in the state of Hums. He waged a tougher war against Muslims. It is your paradise, rather, slaughter," Nagi wrote as a caption to a picture showing a beheading according to the FBI, reports New York Daily News.
In addition to trying to join the ISIS himself, Nagi is accused of trying to recruit others also.
