DENVER — An 18-year-old from Denver was arrested at the airport on Monday after the Federal Bureau of Investigation said he was planning a trip to Afghanistan to join the terrorist organization ISIS.
The teen and one of his relatives were preparing to board a flight to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates at the time he was arrested, according to a criminal complaint.
The complaint says the FBI first began investigating the teen in November 2021 after some of his social media posts were flagged for declaring support for ISIS.
Over the next two years, the suspect communicated with FBI agents who were posing as fellow ISIS supporters online. During these conversations, the complaint says the teen "repeatedly expressed his intent to travel in order to join ISIS as a fighter, to provide money to ISIS to support their efforts, and to recruit others to also support ISIS through travel and/or financial contributions."
He was delayed in carrying out any of those plans because he needed to wait until he was 18 years old to travel and transfer money without his parents' permission, the document says.
During that time, the complaint says, he didn't want to carry out a terrorist attack in the United States while he was waiting, because joining ISIS in Afghanistan "is also better for the safety of my parents than carrying out an operation here."
The document also says he began to waver on his plan to go to Afghanistan, telling the undercover agents that he wanted to get married and have kids first.
As he neared his 18th birthday, the complaint says he started making more concrete plans to travel to Afghanistan, including buying a flight to Dubai. He told the undercover agents once in Dubai, he planned to obtain a visa and then continue to Afghanistan. He also began setting up accounts to transfer money to an ISIS member in Syria, according to the complaint.
After canceling that flight because he was sick, the complaint says he bought another flight to Sharjah, United Arab Emirates that left Denver on Monday. He arrived at the Denver International Airport that morning, along with a relative who was planning to travel with him, and was arrested.
The complaint says the teen did not tell the relative his real motivation for the trip and that that person believed he was traveling to visit family.
After his arrest, the complaint says, FBI agents found journal entries in his Westminster home that mentioned his support for ISIS and his plans to travel to join the terrorist organization.
The teen is facing a charge of attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
SUGGESTED VIDEOS: Investigations & Crime