A New York man faces terrorism charges after his arrest at John F. Kennedy Airport, where federal officials said he was on his way to join the terrorist group behind the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Jesus Wilfredo Encarnacion was arrested in November while he was on his way to Pakistan to join Lashkar-e-Taiba, where he was hoping to train with the deadly organization, officials said Friday.
According to court documents, Encarnacion is alleged to have told an online group chat he wanted to join a terrorist group and discussed with one of the members how he could get to Pakistan for training because “I want to execute. I want to behead. Shoot.”
He spent months discussing his plans to travel abroad to join the terrorist group with an undercover FBI agent, saying he wanted to become an executioner for the Muslim group and “I want to kill on video. Terrify our enemies.” He and the undercover agent planned his travel to Europe, where Encarnacion expected he would meet members of the group for the rest of the trip to Pakistan, where he would be trained.
“As alleged, Jesus Encarnacion had expressed his desire to commit a terrorist attack while living in New York City and never abandoned those plans,” said New York Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill in a statement. “Allegedly, one of his stated motives for traveling overseas was to get the training and experience he believed he needed to someday return to the United States and carry out attacks.”
The Islamic terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba is best known for the 2008 attacks in Mumbai, where 10 members coordinated 12 bombings and shootings killed 174 people and wounded 300 others across four days.
The 29-year-old Encarnacion faces charges of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and one count of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The maximum sentence on each charge is 20 years in prison.
