U.S. arrests New York man for providing support to Islamic State
By Nate Raymond
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former plumbing assistant from New York City was arrested on Tuesday and charged with providing material support to Islamic State by trying to help an undercover law enforcement official travel to Syria to fight with the militant group.
Sajmir Alimehmeti, a 22-year-old from the Bronx borough, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan, which said he had expressed support for Islamic State since 2014.
He is among nearly 90 people who since 2014 have faced U.S. charges over crimes related to Islamic State, which controls territory in Syria and Iraq and has claimed responsibility for attacks in Paris in November that killed 130 people.
The U.S. citizen was arrested at his Bronx residence on Tuesday morning, where authorities found an Islamic State flag, a martial arts weapon and combat-survival knives, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Quigley said in court.
They also found a passport wrapped in $2,400 cash, a sum that Quigley said correlated with an amount Alimehmeti had claimed to have saved to travel to Syria to join Islamic State.
"He repeatedly expressed his own desire to travel overseas," Quigley said.
Sylvie Levine, Alimehmeti's lawyer, argued unsuccessfully for bail for her client, a former plumbing assistant who studied to work in funeral services, saying he had not acted on much of his alleged talk about supporting Islamic State.
"He voices his desire to do something, but doesn't take further action," she said.
According to the complaint, Federal Bureau of Investigation and New York Police Department officials posing as Islamic State sympathizers began meeting with Alimehmeti after the United Kingdom twice denied him entry in 2014.
During his second attempt, when he arrived at Heathrow Airport, authorities discovered numerous images of Islamic State flags and explosive attacks on his cellphone, the complaint said.
Prosecutors said last week, Alimehmeti helped an undercover official obtain travel documents and equipment in order to go to Syria to join Islamic State.
The complaint said he told undercover operatives that he and his brother planned to travel to Syria but his brother was arrested in Albania, where his parents live, and that he had saved $2,500 to go to Syria but needed a passport.
The complaint said Alimehmeti had applied in October for a new U.S. passport, making false claims about losing his old one amid concerns the U.K. rejection stamps it carried would raise suspicions.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by W Simon and Chris Reese)