A 23-year-old Alabama man who pleaded guilty to acquiring bomb-making materials and planning an ISIS-inspired attack on a local police station was sentenced in a federal court Wednesday to 15 years in prison on Wednesday.
Aziz Ihab Sayyed of Huntsville pleaded guilty in March to a charge of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. In a plea agreement, Sayyed admitted to conspiring to bomb police stations in Alabama and attempting to assemble a terrorist cell to carry out the attacks.
“We will not tolerate threats to our national security from terrorist groups like ISIS, which continues to radicalize and encourage terrorists through the internet,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said. “The defendant, a citizen of this country, plotted to carry out attacks on his fellow Americans in our country but was thwarted by the close cooperation of our partners in law enforcement. This successful outcome should send a clear message to any other would-be terrorists that the National Security Division will find them and bring them to justice.”
While planning the attacks, Sayyed met with an FBI informant posing as an ISIS operative. They discussed how to make triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and Sayyed’s plans to aid ISIS.
“Aziz Sayyed was inspired by ISIS to kill or harm Americans, and he has earned every bit of his prison term,” U.S. Attorney Jay Town said. “This case, and this investigation, serves as the gold standard for what is possible when federal, state and local law enforcement agencies work together. The FBI did an outstanding job ensuring this investigation was successful by cultivating those layers of law enforcement necessary in cases like this.”
The case was investigated by the FBI, the Huntsville Police Department, the Madison County District Attorney’s Office, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Army 902 MI Group, and additional local agencies.
“The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is dedicated to identifying and bringing to justice those individuals who attempt to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations, promote violent extremism, and threaten our national security,” Special Agent in Charge Johnnie Sharp Jr. said.