amphotora/iStock(NEW YORK) — A 19-year-old man from New York City has been arrested as part of a national security investigation into a planned ISIS-inspired attack, sources told ABC News.
According to law enforcement sources, the man exchanged texts with undercover investigators about his interest in conducting a possible knife attack in Queens, New York.
In a statement, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York said, “There is no current public safety issue as a result of the arrest.”
The arrests were one of many recently connected to ISIS sympathizers.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment against a man from Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, saying he was inspired by ISIS when he stole a U-Haul van on March 26 and drove it to Maryland with the intent of using it as a weapon to hit pedestrians on sidewalks at the National Harbor complex on the Potomac River.
In mid-July, Ruslan Maratovich Asainov, a naturalized citizen from Kazakhstan living in Brooklyn, was charged with providing and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court.
He had allegedly traveled to Syria first in 2013 and became a sniper and weapons instructor for ISIS.
It was less than a week ago that two women from Queens — Noelle Velentzas, 31, and Asia Siddiqui, 35 — pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to build an explosive device after the ISIS sympathizers communicated with an undercover agent.
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