A Colorado teen has been charged with providing support to ISIS after allegedly planning to fly and join the terrorist organization from when he was just 16 years old.
Humzah Mashkoor, who is now 18, was arrested on Monday at Denver Airport, where he was trying to fly to the UAE en route to Afghanistan, prosecutors said.
He has since been charged with knowingly providing or attempting or conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
His arrest is the culmination of a two-year investigation after the FBI first became aware of Mashkoor expressing support for the terrorist group on social media in 2021 and even sharing videos of executions.
Mashkoor was born in the US but spent time in Afghanistan and allegedly desperately wanted to return to fight for the Islamic State.
In September 2022, he began talking to an undercover FBI employee online who was posing as a ISIS supporter.
The complaint says he ‘repeatedly expressed his intent to travel in order to join ISIS as a fighter, to provide money to ISIS to support their efforts, and to recruit others to also support ISIS through travel and/or financial contributions.’
He also ‘expressed frustration that he was unable to travel to join ISIS or provide money to ISIS to support their efforts because he was not yet 18.’
In one of the most serious incidents, he allegedly ‘indicated, using coded language, that an ISIS contact suggested to Mashkoor that he (Mashkoor) conduct an attack in the United States.’
At one point, he told the agent: ‘I am prepared to do anything which they require me to do … I just want to be used as soon as possible, gun attacks.
‘I have no training, I used to have some practice with guns with I was younger. But that is it.’
As his 18th birthday in November approached, he allegedly started making concrete plans to travel to join ISIS and discussed a plan to get married.
According to the complaint, he told one undercover agent: ‘Once we go there’s no turning back… We leave behind everything… Our family’s… Our homes… Our friends… For the sake of Allah swt… And pleasing him…
Hellbound and Down 