A US police officer was arrested on Wednesday on charges of attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, becoming the first law enforcement officer in the country accused of aiding the terrorist organisation.
Nicholas Young, 36, facing a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, was employed as an officer as Metro Transit Police Department since 2003.
Young was working with Metro Transit Police Department.
This is for the first time that a law enforcement official has been arrested for helping ISIS.
The Department of Justice said law enforcement first interviewed Young in September 2010 in connection with his acquaintance, Zachary Chesser, who had been arrested and subsequently pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Over the next several years, Young allegedly had numerous interactions with undercover law enforcement personnel and an FBI confidential human source regarding his knowledge of and interest in terrorism-related activity.
"Many of these interactions were recorded. Law enforcement also interviewed Young's family and co-workers," it said.
In 2011, Young met with an undercover law enforcement officer, and several of these meetings included another of Young's acquaintances, Amine El Khalifi, who later pleaded guilty to charges relating to his plan to conduct a suicide bombing at the US Capitol Building in 2012, federal prosecutors charged.
In 2011, Young traveled to Libya once and attempted to travel there a second time, federal prosecutors said.
Young told FBI agents that he had been with rebels attempting to overthrow the Muammar Qaddafi regime.
Baggage searches revealed that Young travelled with body armour, a kevlar helmet and several other military-style items, according to the allegations.
As late as July 18, 2016, Young allegedly communicated with a person who he believed to be the CHS regarding purchasing gift cards for mobile-messaging accounts that ISIL purportedly uses in recruiting others to join the terrorist organization.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, on July 28, 2016, Young sent 22 gift card codes to the FBI undercover officer posing as the confidential human resource with a message that stated: "Respond to verify receipt...may not answer depending on when as this device will be destroyed after all are sent to prevent the data being possibly seen on this end in the case of something unfortunate."
The codes were ultimately redeemed by the FBI for USD 245, according to court documents.