Federal prosecutors charged a 21-year-old New Jersey man on Thursday with attempting to help ISIS militants and conspiring with three other Americans.
Authorities arrested Samuel Rahamin Topaz at his Fort Lee, New Jersey, home on Wednesday for providing “material support” to the terrorist organization. He appeared in a New Jersey court on Thursday afternoon.
A law enforcement official told CNN that one of the three individuals Topaz allegedly conspired with is Munther Omar Saleh, who authorities say was behind an ISIS-inspired plot with others to build and detonate a bomb in New York.
Saleh was arrested earlier this week.
Prosecutors charge that Topaz hoped to travel overseas to join ISIS and discussed his plans with three other Americans, who are not named in the filed documents. Those communications — including plans to purchase plane tickets and attempts to “lay low” to avoid law enforcement — were intercepted by authorities.
The conspiracy count could land Topaz with up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to a criminal complaint.
Topaz allegedly communicated with Saleh, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen from Queens who looked to explode a device in the New York metro area.
The FBI has increasingly been monitoring potential suspects with ties to ISIS after two ISIS-inspired gunmen led an attack in Garland, Texas, last month.
