22-Year-Old Queens Man Admits He Tried To Join ISIS: Feds

OZONE PARK, QUEENS -- A 22-year-old Queens man now faces two decades behind bars after admitting he tried to join ISIS overseas in Syria, prosecutors said.

Parveg Ahmed, of Ozone Park, pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court on Wednesday to attempting to support to the extremist terrorist group, short for Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham, when he flew to the Middle East last summer, said U.S. District Attorney Richard Donoghue.

Ahmed was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Aug. 28 after he attempted to travel to Syria to join ISIS, court documents state. He flew from New York to Saudi Arabia that June but was stopped and deported back to the U.S. before he could make it into Syria.

Before his trip, which he claimed was to celebrate an Islamic holiday, Ahmed repeatedly voiced his support for ISIS on social media, according to court documents. Joint Terrorism Task Force agents who searched his cell phone in July found messages expressing a desire to travel to ISIS-controlled areas and join the terrorist group in Syria.

A search of his computer revealed he'd been listening to recordings of radical Islamic terrorists. One was of Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent U.S.-born al Qaeda leader killed in September 2011. The other was of Abdullah el-Faisal, who was found guilty in the UK of soliciting followers to kill people who he deemed enemies of Islam.

The day Ahmed left for the Middle East, he researched how to erase all the data on his computer, court records state.

Ahmed pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support or resources for terror. He faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison.

Lead photo via Shutterstock