Police arrested a US couple planning to join the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist organization in Yemen, just before they boarded a cargo ship bound for the country from Newark, New Jersey, i24NEWS reports, citing a statement from the Justice Department.
Court documents said newlyweds James Bradley, 20, from the Bronx, New York, and Arwa Muthana, 29, of Hoover, Alabama, were ISIS sympathizers on their way to join the terrorist organization. Authorities caught them on the gangplank boarding the boat.
The couple, who married in January, face up to 20 years for conspiring to provide material assistance to a terrorist organization.
An undercover agent learned of Bradley’s radicalized views in 2019, as well as his willingness to carry out an attack in the US, according to i24NEWS.
A friend of Bradley’s was arrested for plotting to travel to Afghanistan and join the Taliban earlier that year, bringing Bradley to the FBI’s attention.
Bradley “has continued to express his desire to carry out violence in support of radical Islamic ideology, directed his support and allegiance to ISIS, and attempted to travel overseas to join and fight for ISIS,” the FBI said.
Both Bradley and Muthana face up to 20 years in prison on the charge of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
Since 2013, American prosecutors have charged hundreds of radicalized individuals, mostly with crimes related to support for ISIS.
Last October, an American man who was 14 years old when his father took him to Syria to join ISIS was charged with aiding a terrorist group.
A month earlier, a Texas man was charged with two counts related to making a bomb threat on the University of Houston after he "Zoom-bombed" an online class and praised ISIS.
In December of 2019, a Connecticut man was arrested after attempting to travel to the Middle East to join and fight for ISIS.
In July of that year, two refugees from Somalia were arrested in Arizona and accused of providing material support to ISIS.
A month prior, a man was arrested after he discussed purchasing explosives with the intention of detonating them in New York's Times Square.
(Arutz Sheva’s North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of the Seventh Day of Passover in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)