A 19-year-old from Illinois was arrested Saturday evening as authorities say he was trying to travel to the Middle East to join the Islamic State Group (ISIS).
Mohammed Hamzah Khan, a U.S. citizen from Bolingbrook, was charged on Monday with attempting to give information and support to a foreign terrorist organization. According to ChicagoBusiness.com, the federal judge has ordered him held until a detention hearing Thursday.
A 19-year-old Illinois man was arrested and charged for allegedly attempting to travel overseas to support terrorism: http://t.co/A8x5bN1XYx
— 13WREX (@13WREX) October 6, 2014
Law enforcement saw Khan go through security at O’Hare’s international terminal. According to prosecutors, Khan had purchased a ticket to Istanbul, Turkey via Vienna, Austria. After the arrest, agents completed a search warrant at Khan’s residence and retrieved documents that showed support towards the Islamic State Group.
According to the criminal complaint, a page in a notebook contained a sketch of what looked to be an armed fighter with an Islamic state group flag and then a statement reading, “Come to Jihad” written in Arabic.
FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that there are more than 100 Americans who have either tried to go to Syria and were arrested, or went and came back to the U.S.
