An Ohio man was arrested Monday for allegedly trying to provide material support to the Islamic State, a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Justice Department announced in a statement.
Aaron T. Daniels, 20, of Columbus sent $250 in January to a now-deceased ISIS operative, Abu Isa Al-Amriki, and has been communicating with the terror group for many months, according to the criminal complaint.
Southern Ohio Joint Terrorism Task Force agents arrested Daniels at an airport in Columbus as he was attempting to join the terror group in Libya. Daniels' flight, which was scheduled to go through Houston, Texas and Trinidad, was set to leave Columbus on Monday.
Daniels had allegedly set up various forms of communication to contact jihadists overseas, WBNS-10TV reported.
The complaint also states that Daniels set up email addresses and a social media account using the aliases Harun Muhammad and Abu Yusef. He used those accounts to expresses his interested in jihad and to seek funding to travel to Syria and Afghanistan.
Daniels allegedly told an undercover FBI agent that he wanted to travel to Trinidad as the beginning of his trip to Libya. He purchased a plane ticket to travel from Columbus to Houston where he would then go to Trinidad.
Daniels faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.