Bronx man arrested at JFK for attempting to join ISIS: officials

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NY) - A Bronx man who had helped another man travel to Syria to train and join the Islamic State was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday night attempting to travel to Syria, too, and for the same purpose, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan.

"Saddam Mohamed Raishani allegedly acted on his own desire to wage violent jihad, planning to leave his family and life in New York City for the battlefields of the Middle East," said Acting U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim.

According to the criminal complaint, Raishani, 30, told an undercover investigator that he had been in contact with other ISIS supporters and no longer felt comfortable in the United States. 

The home health aide was arrested by the FBI after he attempted to board a flight to Lisbon where he was to make a connecting flight to Turkey and join an ISIS fighter who would bring him to Syria.

Raishani is expected to appear before Magistrate Judge James L. Cott in Manhattan federal court Thursday.

He is charged with one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.  

“As we have seen many times before, allegedly attempting to join a designated terrorist organization usually has one outcome: arrest," said NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill.