On Wednesday, the FBI arrested two men from Chicago for conspiring to support ISIS. An intensive investigation showed the men were trying to send a recruit and cell phone detonators to the terrorist organization.
Federal authorities arrested Edward Schimenti and Joseph Jones, both 35, on Wednesday after a 19-month-long undercover investigation that involved four federal agents and one cooperating with authorities, the Chicago Sun Times reported.
The FBI allegedly tricked Jones and Schimenti into believing they had accessed an ISIS network used for smuggling new Jihadists into Syria.
Both men allegedly helped the individual cooperating with authorities to obtain cell phones that could be used as detonators and introduced him to an undercover agent they thought could get him into Syria. According to the records, once he left, the men planned to deliver more detonators through the cooperator’s “aunt”.
FBI agents noticed the pair after discovering their radical social media posts supporting terrorism committed by ISIS. Both men shared a picture posing with the ISIS flag at Illinois Beach State Park in Zion, claims the 77 page criminal complaint.
An undercover FBI agent first got in touch with Jones at the Zion Police Department back in September 2015 after he came for an interview about the murder of his friend. From then on, the agents built a relationship to examine their radical views.
According to the report, one of the men planned to carry out an attack on the Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago, and boasted about watching ISIS propaganda videos every night. He allegedly shared gruesome videos with the undercover agents, including people being beheaded by a child soldier, others drowned in a cage, and blown up by a rocket grenade.
Jones also allegedly told one agent that he’s thinking about joining ISIS “every night and day.”
The Chicago Tribune reported that in recorded conversations, Schimenti allegedly wished to drop gay people off the Willis Tower and dreamed about an ISIS flag “on top of the White House.”
According to the chair of the local Black Lives Matter chapter in the area, Clyde McLemore, Schimenti also once joined a rally against the police to condemn the police-involved shooting of Justus Howell in April 2015.
He told The Chicago Tribune: “I remember him—we had to take the mike away from him because he was too radical. In his speech he said ‘kill the police’ and talked about blowing up the police station.”
The paper also reported that local Muslim leaders were familiar with the pair, claiming they had expressed signs of radicalization.
“We had discussions about philosophy of Islam, and they leaned toward a more militant form of Islam,” said Junard Latif, coordinator for Ahmadiyya Muslim Community mosque in Zion. “But I had no idea they would do anything like this … I can’t say enough how sad it is that people are drawn to this type of action.”
Jones and Schimenti were brought to court on Wednesday. They said they work at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
The families of both men said they were surprised to hear the accusations. During the hearing, Schimenti’s mother reportedly said her son “is no terrorist”. She added, “It’s ridiculous. Eddie’s not like that.”
Jones’ family seconded those opinions, even while acknowledging that the son converted from Christianity to Islam. “We didn’t know he was radicalized like that,” Wayne Jones told The Chicago Tribune. “We did not raise our children like that, and we don’t believe in that.”
