HOUSTON – A 20-year-old U.S. citizen from Houston has
entered a guilty plea to attempting to provide material support to Islamic
State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization,
announced U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Patrick and Assistant Attorney General for
National Security John C. Demers.
Kaan Sercan Damlarkaya attempted to join and support ISIS
from August 2017 until his arrest in December 2017. In addition to wanting to
join ISIS, Damlarkaya also provided information to ISIS supporters about the
use of machetes, homemade construction of an automatic weapon and how to build
and use explosive materials.
As part of his plans to join ISIS overseas, starting in
approximately early August 2017, Damlarkaya had numerous conversations online
with many individuals he believed to be fellow ISIS supporters. During these
discussions, he described his intentions to travel overseas to fight for ISIS
in Syria or Afghanistan. Damlarkaya added that if he was unsuccessful in
joining ISIS overseas, he would conduct an on attack on non-Muslims in the
United States and that it was his “dream” to be a martyr.
Damalarkaya also provided information to other ISIS
supporters, on at least two separate occasions, about ways to manufacture a
bomb. Specifically, he described how to make explosives formula using
triacetone triperoxide and cautioned the
others to “take safety seriously while you make this” to be “useful until you
can strike.”
Damlarkaya further illustrated to ISIS supporters ways to
construct an automatic weapon. He claimed he could buy a “GIANT machete for
$15” and stated “a lot of us are poor… or we don't have experience. So not all
of us can get a gun or make explosives, but we can afford to buy a $15 knife.”
He claimed he slept with a machete under his pillow ready to use if law
enforcement raided his house.
When agents arrested Damlarkaya, they executed a search
warrant at his residence and found a machete by his bed.
U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen accepted the plea today
and has set sentencing for Sept. 30, 2019. At that time, Damlarkaya faces up to
20 years in federal prison and a maximum $250,000 possible fine.
He has been and will remain in custody pending that hearing.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force conducted the
investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alamdar Hamdani and Rob Jones are
prosecuting the case along with DOJ Trial Attorneys Kevin Nunnally and Gregory
Gonzalez of National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.
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