Wannabe ISIS recruit pleads guilty in New York

“There will come a time where people will only know to say Allahu Akbar,” said Redzepagic.

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

A New York man charged with attempting to join and provide material support to ISIS and an affiliated Islamic extremist group pleaded guilty in Federal Court last Friday, the U.S. Justice Department announced in a statement.

Long Island resident Elvis Redzepagic, 30, faces up to 20 years in prison for attempting to join the terrorist group.

He was arrested in 2017 after his family called authorities because he threatened to behead his mother, Newsday reported.

At the time of his arrest, Redzepagic’s attorneys issued a statement chalking up their client’s behavior to “mental illness and drug use.”

“I plead guilty,” Redzepagic said in court. “I traveled to Turkey and attempted to enter through the Syrian border with the purpose of joining al-Nusra Front at around June, August 2015.”

According to prosecutors, Redzepagic traveled to the Middle East twice, once to Turkey in 2015 and to Jordan in 2016, attempting to cross into Syria from its neighboring countries.

His attempts to cross in Turkey were unsuccessful, and during his second round of attempts in Jordan he was stopped and deported by the authorities.

The statement from federal prosecutors said Redzepagic explained in Facebook messages that “jihad” is when “you fight for the sake of God” and “die for the sake of Allah.”

He admitted in a Facebook conversation that he traveled to Turkey to “perform Jihad and join Jabhat Al-Nusra.”

“There will come a time where people will only know to say Allahu Akbar,” he added.

When Suffolk County police arrested Redzepagic on a minor charge in early 2017, he reportedly said,“I’m going to leave this country, and I’m going to come back with an army. Islam is coming,”

The Montenegro-born naturalized U.S. citizen was known locally as a troublemaker, but the news of his arrest on terrorism charges in 2017 shocked the community.

“He was never really supporting anything or trying to get other people to support his views or his causes, but I mean who knows,” neighbor Perry Notarnicola told CBS 2 in 2017.

“I can’t believe it’s in your own backyard. It’s just amazing what’s going on in this world now,” said another neighbor, Sharon Ross.