Terrorism

Authorities arrest ISIS sympathizer plotting midnight mass attack

thompson ISIS terrorism
This undated photo released by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office shows Derrick Thompson of Phoenix. Authorities say Thompson, arrested on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2016, expressed support for the Islamic State group online, researched “lone wolf” attacks and attempted to illegally buy a gun on Jan. 26, 2015, according to court documents. (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)

On Friday, the Washington Times reported that authorities in Phoenix arrested 30-year-old  ISIS sympathizer Derrick Thompson for allegedly plotting an attack on a midnight Christmas mass.

According to the Times:

Derrick Thompson, 30, was arrested on Tuesday and charged with one felony count of participating in a criminal syndicate, one charge of assisting a criminal syndicate and one felony count of misconduct involving weapons. Court documents released Thursday say he has been an “avowed jihadist” since July 2014.

“From the period of July 2014 to the present Derrick Thompson was involved in communications and activity that show material support for the Islamic State Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS/IS),” court documents said, a local CBS affiliate reported Thursday. “Specifically, on our about January 26, 2015, Thompson attempted to obtain a handgun from a seller on backpage.com.”

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The suspect’s attempts to obtain the handgun failed due to a prior felony conviction.

“The search history from his Google accounts include numerous contacts with ISIL websites, and a post to his Google Plus account in October 2016 stating, ‘Right, we need to get down with this ISIS s-t.’ His Google account has been used as recently as October 2016 to search for midnight mass,” the court documents continued.

Local ABC15 added:

According to court paperwork, it was January 2015 when Thompson tried to buy gun from backpage.com with the intent to carry out an attack for ISIL. However, Thompson is a convicted felon – which prohibits him from buying a firearm.

Investigators say since 2014, Thompson has been an “avowed jihadist,” and has conducted 100’s of Google searches for handguns, rifles, scopes and crossbows.

Thompson, who was raised in Arizona, was involved in two armed robberies in 2005 along with two other men. They robbed two men in two days, armed with a handgun and an SKS rifle with a bayonet. Thompson was sentenced to seven and half years in prison for his involvement in these crimes. Thompson was released on January 1, 2013.

Thompson’s arrest comes a month after an 18-year-old Arizona man was sentenced to eight years in prison for terrorism convictions stemming from a plot to attack a motor vehicle office in metro Phoenix.

The Gateway Pundit posted several photos found on a Google account believed to be connected to Thompson, including these:

Thompson1

Thompson

According to ABC 15, Thompson was being held in a Phoenix jail on a $100,000 cash-only bond.

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Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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