Retired US Army Colonel Joe Buccino talks about where ISIS will attack next after the concert hall attack on Varney & Company in Moscow.
The FBI arrested an 18-year-old boy in Idaho. Plan to attack church in Coeur d’Alene Over the weekend, a terrorism expert told FOX Business that the move on behalf of ISIS highlights how cryptocurrencies are “growing in popularity among all extremist groups.”
Before being arrested in a northern Idaho resort city over the weekend, Alexander Mercurio told a confidential source that he was “communicating online with individuals who donate crypto funds to the state (ISIS).” FBI agent said. That’s what he wrote in a criminal complaint released by the Justice Department.
The complaint said Mercurio said he had $8,000 in a savings account and $3,000 in a checking account.
“Cryptocurrencies are becoming increasingly popular among all extremist groups…and certainly among ISIS supporters,” said Lorenzo Vidino, director of the Extremism Program at George Washington University. he told FOX Business.
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Alexander Mercurio, posing here in front of an ISIS flag, was arrested on Saturday, April 6th.
“In recent years, very young and often confused men, often converts, have been touting various extremist ideologies online, eventually settling on ISIS and attacking on their behalf. “I think we’ve seen a steady stream of incidents involving individuals (planning),” Vidino added. “This is primarily an online phenomenon and is well monitored by the FBI.”
Vidino also said religious sites are “increasingly being targeted by Americans inspired by ISIS.”
Mercurio is now providing material support and supplies to a designated foreign terrorist organization, with the FBI alleging that he planned to “incapacitate his father, handcuff him, and steal firearms that he would use to inflict maximum casualties.” He is facing federal charges for attempting to provide the information. In an attack he was scheduled to carry out in Coeur d’Alene on Sunday, April 7th.
“The defendant’s alleged allegiance to ISIS and attack on churchgoers in Idaho was a truly horrifying plan,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. discovered and stopped.”
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Alexander Mercurio was charged with attempting to provide material support or supplies to a designated foreign terrorist organization. (Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office)
The FBI said in a criminal complaint that Mercurio’s “plan of attack included the use of flared weapons, explosives, knives, machetes, pipes, and ultimately firearms.” He said the targets became more accurate as he pinpointed the specific church and date of the attack. ”
FBI agents also said Mercurio “made a Bayah statement in which he pledged allegiance to ISIS and stated that he was willing to die while killing others for ISIS.”
But on Saturday afternoon, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Mercurio’s home and found a “metal pipe,” a “Negro Smith & Wesson fixed blade knife,” and a “machete,” according to the complaint.
ISIS flag raised in Mosul, Iraq, June 2014. (Reuters/Reuters Photo)
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Mercurio currently faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted of the federal charges.
