A Florida man is going to prison after pleading guilty to attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
Federal officials say Romeo Langhorne, 32, pledged his allegiance to the Islamic terrorist organization in 2014 and engaged in online activity supportive of the group.
"Between 2018 and 2019, Langhorne reaffirmed his support of ISIS on various social media accounts, posted ISIS-produced videos to his YouTube account and participated in online ISIS chat rooms with like-minded individuals. In December 2018 and January 2019, Langhorne expressed in one of those chat rooms an interest in creating a video that would improve on existing videos demonstrating the making and use of a deadly explosive, triacetone triperoxide (TATP)," the Justice Department said in a statement.
In February 2019, Langhorne began communicating with an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS affiliate about creating a video teaching viewers how to make the explosive to arm ISIS adherents.
"The FBI produced a video in accordance with Langhorne's instructions, but – unbeknownst to Langhorne – it featured an inert chemical formula for TATP that would not produce an explosion," officials said.
The undercover agent provided versions of the video to Langhorne in November 2019. After Langhorne posted the video online, he was taken into custody.
"Langhorne admitted in a post-arrest interview that he had 'probably at some point' pledged allegiance to both ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was the leader of ISIS from 2014 until his death on Oct. 26, 2019," officials said. Langhorne also admitted to communicating with the undercover agent and uploading the bomb-making videos to the internet.
He will serve 20 years in federal prison and 15 years of supervised release.
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