SANTA ANA, CALIF.
Federal authorities arrested two Orange County men, one of whom attempted to travel to the Middle East to allegedly join ISIS, for allegedly conspiring to provide material support to the terrorist group, ISIS, officials announced Friday.
The FBI arrested Muhanad Badawi, 24, and Nader Elhuzayel, 24, both of Anaheim, Thursday evening, officials said.
The two are scheduled to make an initial court appearance today in federal court in Santa Ana, officials stated.
The affidavit in support of the criminal complaint outlines a scheme:
- Badawi and Elhuzayel used social media to discuss ISIS and terrorist attacks, expressed a desire to die as martyrs and made arrangements for Elhuzayel to leave the U.S. to join ISIL.
- On May 3, Elhuzayel saw a tweet from Elton Simpson, one of the two gunmen who were killed trying to attack a conference in Garland, Texas.
- In this tweet, Simpson stated that he and his “bro” had pledged allegiance to the leader of ISIS.
- In response, Elhuzayel tweeted his support for the attempted attack and praised Simpson as a “martyr.”
- In recorded conversations last month, Badawi and Elhuzayel “discussed how it would be a blessing to fight for the cause of Allah, and to die in the battlefield,” and they referred to ISIS as “we,” according to the complaint affidavit.
- When Badawi expressed concerns about ISIS struggling due to airstrikes by Coalition forces, Elhuzayel responded that they had to be patient and “can you imagine when al-Qaeda joins with Islamic State”?
- Badawi responded: “We will be huge.” The two men also discussed local Muslim leaders and Elhuzayel complained that these leaders were not “legitimate” because they believed in democracy and were not fighting for an Islamic State.
- The men discussed where in the Middle East they would rather be, and Elhuzayel said he wanted to fight and did not want to be in the United States.
- On May 7, Badawi allowed Elhuzayel to use his credit card to purchase a one-way airline ticket for travel from Los Angeles to Tel Aviv, Israel, via Istanbul, Turkey, on a Turkish Airlines flight scheduled to depart on Thursday.
- Badawi indicated that he would be traveling to the Middle East in the future.
Elhuzayel was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport. He admitted that he planned to disembark in Istanbul to join ISIS and did not intend to travel on to Israel, authorities stated.
Badawi and Elhuzayel each are facing up to 15 years in prison for conspiring to provide material support to ISIS.