Mohamed Sagha, 22, of Passaic County, New Jersey, has been charged with aiding a foreign terror group after allegedly planning to carry out an Islamic State-linked attack on a synagogue, the US Department of Justice said on Monday.
Sagha, who lives in the Wayne township, discussed "potential attacks on targets within the United States, including places of worship" with an undercover source, whom he believed to be part of the terror group, in online chats from December 2025 until June 2026, the department alleged. It said that he also shared photos and videos of the alleged target sites.
The New Jersey man allegedly told the source that "he was contemplating carrying out an attack of his own, possibly on a National Guard location or on a Jewish place of worship" near his home, and in March 2026, he tried to travel to IS territory in Syria to support the terror organisation, according to court filings.
He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
"Those who seek to advance the objectives of foreign terrorist organisations should expect a swift and coordinated response from federal law enforcement," stated Robert Frazer, US attorney for the District of New Jersey.
The Justice Department alleges that Sagha purchased a virtual private network, a communications encryption tool, for the source, whom he believed to be part of IS.
In the complaint, an FBI special agent wrote that "based on my training and experience, had Sagha been communicating with an actual IS member and not a confidential source, he would have provided members of a terrorist organisation with a tool capable of enhancing their operational security and ability to communicate and operate online with reduced risk of identification, thereby facilitating their planned acts of terrorism."
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