(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Justice Department announced last week that it arrested 18-year-old Mateo Ventura for intending to support ISIS, but a report yesterday from The Intercept shows that the U.S. government built a dubious case against a mentally challenged teenager—grooming Ventura from when he was still a juvenile.
“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. “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 DOJ’s charging documents support this assertion. The teenager had never actually communicated with any ISIS members, but instead was chatting with an undercover FBI agent since he was 16.
Even though ISIS had largely been destroyed by 2021, Ventura told the undercover he wanted to join the cause.
The teenager allegedly sent small amounts of cash through gift cards to the FBI agent, mostly through gaming stores like Steam, PlayStation Network and Google Play. The amounts of his small transactions added up to a total of $965 during the time that he was a juvenile, and another $705 after he became a legal adult, according to The Intercept.
“All the while, Ventura’s conversations with the FBI undercover operative online continued, including promises to make a passport and assurances that he would teach himself Arabic ‘very fast’ in case he traveled to Egypt on behalf of the group,” The Intercept reported.
In September 2022, Ventura apparently had second thoughts about supporting ISIS, telling the undercover agent that he could no longer “go for hijrah,” because he had been “hurt very bad in fall and can no longer walk.” The FBI reportedly determined that Ventura had fabricated his injury.
But just after his 18th birthday in January, the teenager changed his mind and started talking again to the undercover agent.
“At the FBI undercover operative’s direction, Ventura took a video of himself and sent it over the chat, telling the agent that he had a beard now,” The Intercept reported. “The FBI agent praised the performance, saying Ventura was ‘strong’ and ‘Look (sic) like lion.’”
In April, the teenager booked a trip to Egypt. But again, he had second thoughts and missed his flight.
At this point, in a twist of irony, he even began contacting the FBI to offer information about ISIS.
“Ventura contacted the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center and reported a tip, stating in a rambling message that he wanted ‘10 million dollars in duffel bags’ in exchange for information on future terrorist attacks,” The Intercept reported.“‘I known (sic) you thought I am retarded fool but jokes on you I will not admit I sent this or communicate until the cash is delivered,’ the message said, according to the criminal complaint in the case.”
The FBI responded to Ventura on April 20, telling him that his information was “not specific and therefore not actionable.”
Meanwhile, Ventura was also still communicating to the undercover agent and sending him money through gift cards. Those interactions continued until he was arrested last week.
Following his arrest, most media outlets uncritically parroted the DOJ’s charges, reporting that a potential terrorist had been captured.
But far from being a sponsor of terrorism, Ventura is a troubled teenager in need of help for his special needs.
“The picture that emerges in the charging documents is, instead, the more familiar tale of an impressionable, vulnerable young man, legally a child at the point the investigation began, groomed by FBI undercover agents online to break the law and generate flashy headlines in the aftermath,” The Intercept concluded.
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
