A 22-year-old Queens man stood in front of a judge at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Aug. 29 charged with trying to join the international terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham (ISIS).
According to a press release by the United States Department of Justice, Parveg Ahmed of Ozone Park, allegedly made several posts on his social media accounts in support of ISIS. He also traveled to Saudi Arabia in June of 2017 in an attempt to enter ISIS-controlled land, but was detained in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, the release stated.
“As alleged, Ahmed sought to take up arms with violent terrorists who have killed numerous innocent victims, including Americans,” said Bridget M. Rohde, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “This Office and our law enforcement partners will continue to work tirelessly to arrest and prosecute extremists before they are able to threaten the United States and its allies.”
On July, 17, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) obtained a search warrant for Ahmed’s computer and discovered that he had viewed or listened to recordings of radical Islamic clerics Anwar al-Awlaki and Abdullah el-Faisal, who were part of the foreign terrorist organization al Qaeda and who preached to followers to kill people deemed enemies of Islam, respectively.
Then, on Aug. 28, the JTTF obtained a search warrant for the electronic devices found on Ahmed when he was detained while attempting to travel to Syria and found that he had sent messages to third parties expressing his desire to travel to ISIS-controlled territories; a message explaining that he intended to join ISIS in Syria to wage jihad; and an internet browser history indicating that he was researching maps if ISIS-controlled locations.
“As alleged, the defendant traveled to the Middle East in an effort to join ISIS. Mr. Ahmed also took extraordinary measures to destroy the electronic foot print he created,” said NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill. “This type of work goes on every day at the nation’s first Joint Terrorism Task Force here in Manhattan.”
Ahmed was deported back to the United States on Aug. 28, and he was promptly arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
If convicted on charges of attempted material support for terror, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Ahmed is currently being held without bail.
