The FBI arrested a former National Guard member on July 3 for trying to “provide material support” to the ISIS terrorist group, according to a Department of Justice press release.
Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 26, is alleged to have provided services to ISIS, also known as ISIL or Daesh, for what he believed would be an attack on U.S. soil committed in the name of the terror group, the Department of Justice said.
A now-deceased ISIS member “brokered an introduction” between Jalloh and an FBI undercover agent posing as an ISIS supporter, the statement asserts.
Jalloh met with the undercover agent on “two occasions in April and May 2016,” telling them he was a former member of the Virginia National Guard.
Jalloh’s case is the most recent of several in which men from the northern Virginia area just outside Washington have been charged with attempting to support the Islamic State group.
Court records indicate the FBI saw Jalloh buying an assault rifle Saturday at a gun shop in Chantilly. The affidavit is not clear as to whether authorities believe Jalloh planned to use the rifle himself or whether he may have been procuring it on behalf of an informant. He was arrested Sunday.
He also asked the undercover FBI agent if it would be better to plan an attack during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to the press release.
Jalloh’s sister, Fatmatu Jalloh, told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview that she is serving as one of her brother’s attorneys. She said she had not yet seen the unsealed charges but denied he was the Islamic State group.
Jalloh is identified in the affidavit as a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Sierra Leone.
In April, Jalloh told the informant he had been thinking about carrying out a Fort Hood-style attack. Asked to explain, Jalloh said, “Nidal Hasan type of things. That’s the kind of stuff I started thinking,” according to the affidavit.
If convicted, Jalloh faces a maximum of 20 years in prison.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
