By Nick Gale
(CHICAGO) Two men from north suburban Zion were arrested Wednesday on a federal complaint charging them with conspiring to provide material support to ISIS.
Federal officials say 35-year-old Joseph D. Jones, also known as “Yusuf Abdulhaqq,” and 35-year-old Edward Schimenti, also known as “Abdul Wali,” are charged with conspiring to knowingly provide and attempt to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. Authorities executed a search warrant at Jones’ residence in Zion.
According to a complaint, Jones and Schimenti pledged their allegiance to ISIS and advocated on social media for violent extremism in support of the terrorist group. In the fall of 2015 the pair befriended three individuals whom Jones and Schimenti believed were fellow ISIS devotees. Unbeknownst to Jones and Schimenti, the complaint says two of the individuals were undercover FBI employees and the third individual was cooperating with law enforcement and was not an ISIS supporter.
Officials say over the next several months Jones and Schimenti met the undercover FBI employees and the cooperating source on numerous occasions, during which Jones and Schimenti discussed their devotion to ISIS and their commitment to Islamic State principles. Some of the meetings took place in Waukegan, Zion, Bridgeview, North Chicago, Highland Park and Chicago.
The complaint says at one point, Jones and Schimenti shared photographs of themselves holding the Islamic State flag at the Illinois Beach State Park in Zion. In a recorded conversation with the cooperating source, Schimenti commented that Schimenti would like to see the ISIS flag “on top of the White House.”
Last month, officials say the pair furnished several cellular phones to the cooperating source, believing they would be used to detonate explosive devices in ISIS attacks. The complaint says on April 7, 2017, Jones and Schimenti drove the cooperating source to O’Hare with the understanding that the source would be traveling to Syria to fight with ISIS.
The charge in the complaint is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
@ 2017 WLS-AM News
