A law enforcement official told CNN that one of the three individuals Topaz allegedly conspired with is Munther Omar Saleh, who authorities say was behind an ISIS-inspired plot with others to build and detonate a bomb in New York.
Federal prosecutors charged a 21-year-old New Jersey man on Thursday by attempting to help ISIS militants and conspiring with three other Americans. Authorities arrested Samuel Rahamin Topaz at Fort Lee, New Jersey, home on Wednesday for providing "material support" to the terrorist organization. He appeared in a New Jersey court on Thursday afternoon.
Prosecutors charge is that Topaz hoped to travel overseas to join ISIS and discussed his plans with three other Americans, who are not named in the filed documents. Those communications -- including plans to purchase plane tickets and attempts to "lay low" to avoid law enforcement -- were intercepted by authorities. The conspiracy count could land Topaz with up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to a criminal complaint.
Topaz allegedly communicated with Saleh, a 20-year-old U.S. citizen from Queens who looked to explode a device in the New York metro area. The FBI has increasingly been monitoring potential suspects with ties to ISIS after two ISIS-inspired gunmen led an attack in Garland, Texas, last month.
Back in April 2015, A 30-year-old Philadelphia woman has been charged with trying to aid the Islamic State Prosecutors say Keonna Thomas by wanting to "martyr herself" for the Islamic State - and even attempted to travel to the Middle East to take up arms with the terrorist organization.
Thomas, who went by the name "YoungLioness" online, messaged an IS fighter in Syria, telling him that becoming a martyr for the cause would be an "amazing" opportunity, authorities said.
"A girl can only wish," she allegedly told him on Feb. 17. "I can make that wish come true," the fighter replied, according to authorities. Prosecutors said Thomas bought plane tickets to Barcelona in late March, and had researched how to travel to Turkey by bus from the Spanish city.
