Shortly after Justin Sullivan was sentenced to life in prison for planning to commit mass murder in support of the Islamic State, U.S. Attorney Jill Rose of Charlotte confirmed that investigations of other suspected ISIS sympathizers continue in North Carolina.
A domestic-terrorism expert told the Observer this week that the North Carolina probes are among some 1,000 active FBI investigations into ISIS-related threats encompassing all 50 states.
One case involves a 29-year-old Waxhaw man accused of lying to the FBI when he denied he told someone he planned to fly to Syria to fight with ISIS while helping others get there to do the same, according to a bill of indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Charlotte.
Alexander Samuel Smith is accused of meeting with someone in Matthews in 2014 whom he thought was an ISIS representative but who was really an FBI confidential source, the indictment said. He offered lower-fare “buddy passes” he said he could get from his girlfriend, who worked at a U.S. airline at the time, court documents show. Smith is charged with two counts of making a false statement to an agency of the United States, according to the indictment.
Originally published by the Charlotte Observer.
