Marlonn Hicks has pled guilty to to distributing information regarding the manufacture and use of explosives, with the intent that the information be used for and in furtherance of a crime of violence to a terrorist organization. Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Mary B. McCord, U.S. Attorney David Capp of the Northern District of Indiana and Special Agent in Charge W. Jay Abbott of the FBI’s Indianapolis Field Office announced the charges on Friday October 28, 2016.
The 30-year-old man from Crown Point, Indiana spoke with FBI agents that he believed to be members of ISIS for months before being arrested. Hicks spoke of plans to travel to ISIS-controlled territory in the Middle East to fight alongside ISIS and also provided FBI agents with detailed information on how to created explosive devices that he believed would be used in an attack against the U.S.
Hicks believed he was conversing with other ISIS sympathizers. He offered advice on how to create explosives and how to use them effectively during an attack. Hicks not only supported radical Islamic violence carried out by others, he also planned to carry out an attack of his own. Just days after the Orlando Pulse Nightclub attack that left 49 people dead Hicks confided in the FBI agents, telling them he believed he would die in the U.S. and sharing details of an attack that he planned to carry out himself.
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Indianapolis Division and the Indianapolis Joint Terrorism Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the District of Indiana. Hicks faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
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