Bangladesh citizen Nelash Das was charged Tuesday with attempting to murder a federal employee and provide material support to the Islamic State.
Das, a 25-year-old man who previously resided in Maryland as a legal permanent resident, allegedly attempted to provide support to ISIS from October 2015 to September 2016, while knowing full well that the group was listed as a foreign terrorist organization. He also attempted to murder a service member. The Department of Justice noted in a release that Das has already been indicted on the material support charge.
“Nelash Mohamed Das is alleged to have plotted to kill a U.S. service member on behalf of ISIL,” then-Assistant Attorney General John P. Carlin said in October 2016. “Individuals intent on carrying out violence in the name of foreign terrorist organizations pose one of the most concerning threats that law enforcement faces today and stopping these offenders before they are able to act is our highest priority.”
On Oct. 26, 2015, Das posted the identity of an individual that intended to become a U.S. service member. Das added that this individual “aspired to kill Muslims.” In the past, other supporters of ISIS in the U.S. have reposted the identities of service members in the hopes that someone would take lethal action against them. Terrence J. McNeil, an American supporter of ISIS, was sentenced last Wednesday to 20 years in prison for posting the addresses of 100 U.S. service members and including calls for their deaths.
Months later in July 2016, Das told a confidential human source (CHS) working for the FBI that he intended to kill a specific U.S. service member living in Prince George County, Md. Das said he had obtained the service member’s information from a kill list created by ISIS, but later told the CHS he had lost the list and asked the CHS for new information on service members.
Das told this same CHS in September 2016 that conducting a terror attack was “like my goal in life.” One day after the meeting, Das expressed a wish that he would eventually get paid for conducting attacks against the U.S. military, but was also willing to work for free.
FBI agents later arrested Das in September after he tried to purchase ammunition, driving to what he thought was the address of the service member and preparing to launch a deadly attack against the service member with CHS-provided inert firearms.
If Das is convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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