Just one day after a DC cop was arrested for having ties to ISIS, on Thursday a North Carolina resident was charged with conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State.
The Department of Justice detailed the arrest of Erick Jamal Hendricks in an official statement:
Erick Jamal Hendricks, 35, tried to recruit people to train together and conduct terrorist attacks in the United States on behalf of ISIL, according to a criminal complaint unsealed today in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Ohio. [...]
According to the complaint, in June 2015, an individual (CW-1) was arrested in the Northern District of Ohio after attempting to purchase an AK-47 assault rifle and ammunition from an undercover law enforcement officer. CW-1 had pledged allegiance to ISIL in social media and made statements expressing interest in conducting attacks in the United States.
Hendricks had contacted CW-1 over social media to recruit him in the spring of 2015, according to the complaint. Hendricks allegedly told CW-1 that he “needed people” and wanted to meet in person; that there were several “brothers” located in Texas and Mexico; that he was attempting to “get brothers to meet face to face;” and that he wanted “to get brothers to train together.”
According to the statement, Hendricks "communicated over social media with several other people, including an undercover FBI employee," in an effort "to create a sleeper cell to be trained and housed at a secure compound that would conduct attacks in the United States". Hendricks, who claimed to have at least 10 members in his sleeper group, was also allegedly in contact with at least one of the two shooters involved in the attack in Garland, Texas last May.
If convicted, Hendricks faces up to 15 years in prison.