Federal authorities charged Monday a New York resident with attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
Parveg Ahmed appeared at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein. According to the Justice Department, Ahmed traveled to Saudi Arabia last June to apparently celebrate an Islamic religious holiday.
When he entered the country, the suspect tried to travel to Syria and make it to an ISIS-controlled zone.
After getting a search warrant for Ahmed’s computer back in July, officials found out he had watched or listed to recordings of radical Islamic clerics Anwar al-Awlaki and Abdullah el-Faisal, ABC 7 News reported.
On Monday, agents found electronic devices in his possession showing messages sent to third parties describing his wish to go to ISIS-controlled areas.
“Ahmed also took extraordinary measures to destroy the electronic foot print he created,” NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said in a statement. “This type of work goes on every day at the nation’s first Joint Terrorism Task Force here in Manhattan.”
One message, ABC News reports, shows Ahmed’s aspiration to wage violent jihad.
“[W]e have made it to Dawlatul Islam [ISIS] in Syria. In sha Allah [God willing] we will join the Jihad very soon and in Sha Allah [God willing] we will then join the ranks of the Shuhuda [martyrs]. The West has invaded the land of the Muslims and is constantly attacking it,” he said.
However, Ahmed was prevented from completing his trip, and was deported back to the U.S. on August 28 where authorities arrested him at JFK International Airport in New York. The suspect faces a maximum of 20 years in the federal penitentiary.