(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The FBI announced Monday that it has arrested a 17-year-old male in Philadelphia for supposedly plotting to carry out an ISIS-inspired terrorist attack on American soil.
The 17-year-old’s arrest follows two separate but similar FBI operations against 18-year-olds earlier this year. In both of the latter two cases, it has since been revealed that the teenagers both have mental health issues and that FBI informants were targeting them online for years.
In this latest case announced Monday, the FBI has released few details and has withheld the 17-year-old’s name.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office released a statement on the matter, alleging that the teenager was plotting a deadly attack.
Law enforcement was apparently monitoring the boy’s social media communications with the “Katibat al Tawhid wal Jihad,” which was designated by the U.S. State Department as a global terrorist organization.
According to the DA, the teenager was trying to build a bomb.
The DA said U.S. Customs and Border Protection provided records revealing 14 international shipments of military and tactical gear to the juvenile’s address.
“The juvenile is further alleged to have received messages related to construction of improvised explosive devises (IEDs) and to have purchased materials online such as chemical cleaners that are used to construct IEDs, as well as outdoor or tactical gear,” the DA said.
“On August 7, 2023, FBI special agents surveilling the juvenile observed him purchasing materials that can be used to make IEDs, and recovered from his household trash materials including electric wiring that can be used to construct IEDs.”
The boy has been charged with Weapons of Mass Destruction, Criminal Conspiracy, Arson, Causing/Risking Catastrophe, Attempt to Commit Criminal Mischief, Possession of an Instrument of Crime, and Recklessly Endangering Another Person.
The DA said more details about the case will be made available if it’s transferred to adult criminal court.
The FBI’s special agent in charge of its Philadelphia office, Jacqueline Maguire—who shot and killed a dog earlier this year—claimed that her office’s operation saved lives.
“I think it’s very fair to say that lives were saved because of this investigation,” she said in the DA’s press release.
“Investigations like this one—with the amazing work that continues and the successful mitigation of such a significant threat—are exactly why we do what we do, and yet another reminder of what a privilege it is to serve with such dedicated colleagues.”
However, other FBI terrorist operations involving teenagers have proven to be less than life-or-death situations.
In June, for instance, the FBI announced that it arrested 18-year-old Mateo Ventura for intending to support ISIS. However, Ventura’s father, accused the FBI of entrapping his son.
“He was born prematurely, he had brain development issues. I had the school do a neurosurgery evaluation on him and they said his brain was underdeveloped,” Ventura’s father, Paul Ventura, told The Intercept in June.
“He was suffering endless bullying at school with other kids taking food off his plate, tripping him in the hallway, humiliating him, laughing at him.”
The next month, the FBI arrested 18-year-old Davin Meyer as he was about to board an airplane, ostensibly to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS.
Like the Ventura case, Meyer’s mother has accused the FBI of entrapment.
“I bet my life he would never do that without that encouragement [from FBI informants],” she said last month at a detention hearing, describing how her son communicated with at least two FBI informants in chat rooms from last November until he was arrested.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
