A teenager suspected of leaving his home to join foreign terrorist group ISIS was arrested in Chicago over the weekend.
CNN reports that federal agents arrested 19-year-old Mohammed Hamzah Khan at O’Hare International Airport on Saturday (October 4). The young man had just crossed security when he was stopped.
Court documents reveal that he was carrying a notebook with detailed travel plans, a round-trip ticket to Istanbul, Turkey (by way of Vienna, Austria) and a map of the Turkey-Syria border at the time of his arrest.
Authorities executed a warranted search of Khan’s family home in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, Illinois. They found what CNN describes as “documents expressing support for ISIS and jihadists,” as well as a three-page letter that he left for his family, urging them to join him in the Islamic State.
The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, is the name of an extremist organization that operates roughly inside the borders of Iraq and Syria. It is also the name of the unrecognized state the group hopes to establish. ISIS is also referred to as ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) as well as just the Islamic State.
Khan has been charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. On Monday (October 6), he appeared in court. If convicted, he will face a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison plus a $250k fine.
His story is, unfortunately, not an isolated incident. Hundreds of teenage girls from Europe, Australia and the United States have reportedly left their homes after being recruited by ISIS on social media.
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