The Department of Justice announced the indictment of a Virginia man who allegedly attempted to provide material support and resources to the terrorist organization ISIS.
Romeo Xavier Langhorne, 30, was arrested in Roanoke, Virginia on Nov. 15.
An affidavit supporting the criminal complaint states that Langhorne has been following ISIS since 2014 and recently reasserted his support for the terrorist group.
Since February this year, an FBI undercover employee (UCE) posing as an ISIS member established communication with Langhorne. Langhorne told the UCE that he was planning to produce and circulate an instructional video about making a deadly explosive called triacetone triperoxide, aka “TATP.”
If sentenced, Langhorne would face up to 20 years in federal prison, and or a fine.
According to a DOJ statement on the case, Langhorne asked the UCE to help create the instructional video and to make sure that the video is not taken down by internet service providers. The video was to include disclaimers advising that it was for educational purposes.
The alleged real purpose, however, was to provide a means for other ISIS members to create explosives and give them knowledge on how to produce TATPs to enable terrorist acts.
Following Langhorne’s instructions, the FBI produced a video but included a chemically inactive ingredient that would not produce an explosion. Langhorne obtained the video in November and then distributed it on a video-sharing internet platform.
The complaint states that Langhorne wanted to teach the ISIS members “how to obtain materials for explosives without arousing suspicion, and combine those materials to make an explosive sufficient to destroy specific types of [targets].”
He is accused of being an ISIS follower who “who believes that existing videos available online are inadequate to arm fellow ISIS adherents and others with knowledge on how to manufacture explosives.”
The complaint showed that the TATP type explosive has been utilized in various suicide bombings around the world during the last several years.
