A New Jersey native who traveled to Kenya to join al Shabaab pleaded guilty on Monday and faces up to 20 years in prison after being apprehended by Kenyan law enforcement in December 2023.
This is according to a press release from the United States Attorney's Office of the Southern District of New York on Monday.
The 24-year-old man reportedly hatched a plan to join the terrorism cell in December 2023 with the mission of targeting what he described as 'evil America'.
Motivated by the Hamas attack on Israel, he moved to Egypt in July 2023, where he often expressed his desire to wage Jihad in several of his social media posts and communications with his inner circle. "Starting in at least in or about November 2023, (he) repeatedly expressed his desire and plans to join Al Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization that has attacked Americans and American allies around the world, and wage jihad," part of the release read.
