Alexander Ciccolo, son of a Boston police captain who was a first responder at the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing incident, pleaded guilty Monday to plotting an ISIS-style attack.
Son of Boston bombing 1st responder pleads guilty to terrorist bomb plot https://t.co/9Mk3y8Hyyq
— Fox News (@FoxNews) May 22, 2018
Ciccolo, 25, faces 20 years in prison after entering his guilty plea just one month before he was set to go to trial. His sentencing will take place in September, Fox News reported.
Ciccolo admitted to conspiring to use guns and homemade bombs while planning a college campus attack to show his support for ISIS.
In July 2015, Ciccolo, also known as Ali Al Amriki, was arrested for ordering and receiving four guns that he purchased from an FBI cooperative.
Boston Police Capt. Robert Ciccolo reported his son to police after he announced he wanted to join ISIS, according to Fox News.
When Alexander Ciccolo arrived at jail, he stabbed a nurse in the head with a pen.
Later, Alexander Ciccolo was charged with attempting to use weapons of mass destruction and attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
The prosecution said Alexander Ciccolo told the FBI cooperative that he was planning a terrorist attack on an unidentified university and that he intended to use assault rifles and homemade bombs.
Prosecutors said Alexander Ciccolo was seen buying a pressure cooker shortly before his arrest.
Pressure cooker bombs were used in the 2013 Boston Marathon attack that killed three and injured more than 260 others.
The FBI searched Alexander Ciccolo’s apartment following his arrest and found partially-made Molotov cocktails.
On his Facebook page, Ciccolo posted a photo of a dead American soldier that said “Thank you Islamic State!”
Harold Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston field office, said in a statement: “Any material support of a terrorist organization threatens our national security, and had Mr. Ciccolo’s efforts to advance his agenda not been thwarted by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, countless lives could have been lost in a lethal terrorist attack.”
