California man arrested for supporting ISIS

Permanent resident Mark Lorenzo Villanueva was accused of sending ISIS $1,600 and planning to join the terror group.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

The FBI on Friday arrested a permanent resident living in California for financially supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The U.S. Attorney’s Office of the state’s central district charged Mark Lorenzo Villanueva, 28, with “attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, a felony offense that carries a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.”

Villanueva allegedly sent a dozen payments totaling $1,615 to two suspected ISIS terrorists over a five-month period earlier this year after asking one of them through social media if the money would “cover your equipment and your weapons.”

Western Union records cited by the Justice Department show that the men accessed the funds overseas.

According to the federal complaint, however, the Philippine national went further, expressing his desire to fight alongside the Islamist extremists.

“It’s an honor to fight and die for our faith,” he told one of the self-identified terrorists.

“It’s the best way to go to heaven,” he said, adding, “Someday soon, I’ll be joining.”

His desire had already allegedly led to action, as he told the second man that he had a bomb and several knives in his possession.

According to prosecutors, the FBI recovered what appeared to be a bomb from Villanueva’s bedroom when they came to arrest him.

A picture of the homemade device showed several canisters taped together and seemingly filled with ball bearings, with some kind of wires protruding from them.

“Supporting a terrorist group, whether at home or abroad, is a serious risk to our national security,” said acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli. “We will aggressively hunt down and prosecute anyone who provides support or comfort to our enemies.”

The arrest is the second in three months involving alleged ISIS supporters.

In mid-May, former Michigan Army National Guard member Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, 19, was arrested after planning a mass shooting at a military base in Warren, Michigan.

According to prosecutors, Said worked for months on his plan with undercover law enforcement officers posing as ISIS members.

When they said in April that they were ready to act, the complaint stated, “Said provided material assistance to the attack plan.”

This included “providing armor-piercing ammunition and magazines for the attack, flying his drone over [the base] to conduct operational reconnaissance, training the undercover employees on firearms and the construction of Molotov cocktails for use during the attack.”

He also described how to enter the facility “and which building to target.”

On the scheduled day of the assault, Said was caught after launching a drone near the targeted site to help in the attack.

“ISIS is a brutal terrorist organization which seeks to kill Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. upon the arrest.

“Helping ISIS or any other terrorist organization prepare or carry out acts of violence is not only a reprehensible crime – it is a threat to our entire nation and way of life,” he stated.

“Our office will not tolerate such crimes or threats, and we will use the full weight of the law against anyone who engages in terrorism.”