The Maryland man who was last year pleaded guilty to providing ISIS material support was also planning a huge terror attack in the U.S., prosecutors said Monday.
Mohamed Elshinawy had received $8,700 from ISIS via PayPal, and prosecutors said this week he was going to do one of two things: assassinate “a Texas businessman,” or set off a bomb that would “kill a lot of people,” according to CBS Baltimore.
Elshinawy reportedly wanted to detonate a bomb, and prosecutors said that he then received a video from ISIS about how to build a peroxide bomb. His potential target would have been one of the federal buildings in Baltimore, Maryland, prosecutors said.
A judge will rule on Friday if the “terrorism enhancement” will be applied to Elshinawy’s charges. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
A formal sentencing is currently slated for March 9.
It was first reported in August that a top ISIS official used eBay to send money to an operative in the United States.
The affidavit alleged that Elshinawy set up fake eBay transactions and received roughly $8,700 from ISIS through PayPal under the cover of fake computer printer sales.
Elshinawy was arrested more than a year ago following an FBI investigation.
He was part of a global network that operated from the United Kingdom to places like Bangladesh, and that was run by Siful Sujan, a senior ISIS leader who was killed in a 2015 air strike, according to the FBI.
Elshinawy told investigators that ISIS told him to use the funds to carry out attacks in the United States. However, Elshinawy has said that he never planned to carry out any attacks.
Other alleged operatives involved in the global network have been arrested in Britain and Bangladesh, according to the affidavit.
