Two men have been arrested on accusations of plotting a terrorist attack on the White House, Trump Tower, and the New York Stock Exchange in support of ISIS.
Jaylyn Christopher Molina from San Antonio, Texas, and 34-year-old Kristopher Sean Matthews from Eglin, South Carolina, were arrested on Monday. Jaylyn Molina has been detained in Texas, whereas Kristopher Matthews was arrested in Tennessee.
According to the court documents, the FBI claimed that they intercepted communications that showed that these men were planning a terror attack in the name of the Islamic state.
Kristopher Sean Matthews has been accused of being the originator of the plot; last year, he used an encrypted chat service to find an ISIS supporter outside the United States who will help him travel to Syria and recruit in ISIS.
In April, Jaylyn Molina joined that encrypted chat and started conversing with Matthews and soon posting a manual on how to train with an AK-47. He also wrote on social media that America is his enemy, and according to the court documents, he also posted a very graphic photo collage of American citizens being brutally murdered by the ISIS members.
In May, in the encrypted chat, he posted the images that show the instructions on how to make a bomb. And in the same month, Molina and Matthews discussed the location of their attacks.
Matthew allegedly said that he would like to avoid killing innocent children and suggested that it would be better to attack government places like Trump Tower and the New York Stock Exchange and also CIA headquarters, the FBI, and DEA headquarters.
They also talked about using a multi-wave attack strategy to carry out the attacks. Matthew said in the chat that a series of attacks across the nation could be Netflix-worthy.
Molina allegedly told Matthews in the chat room that ‘we need to stick together, we need to defeat them, we need to take a lot of casualties.’
The pair kept on sharing ISIS propaganda materials, unaware that they were being watched and tracked online.
According to the criminal complaint, Molina refers to himself as ‘Abdur Rahim,’ and Matthews calls himself ‘Ali Jibreel.’
Both men have been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization; if convicted, they can face up to 20 years in prison.