Patch Bolingbrook, IL --Federal officials arrested Aurora resident Abdella Ahmad Tounisi, 18, Saturday as he was about get on a plane at O'Hare Airport to join al-Qaida, according to an FBI press release.
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The FBI reports that Tounisi had ties to a man who attempted to bomb a downtown Chicago bar last year.
Cory B. Nelson, special agent in charge of the Chicago Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, emphasized that "there is no connection between this case and the events that occurred over the last several days in Boston," the press release said.
The FBI said Tounisi was trying to get to Syria in order to join a jihadist militant group operating inside Syria. The arrest was announced Saturday by Nelson and Gary S. Shapiro, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.
Tounisi was charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court with one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, a felony offense. He was held without bail until his next court appearance, which is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. April 23, 2013.
The investigation that culminated in Tounisi’s arrest began in 2012. It states that Tounisi is a close friend of Adel Daoud, an individual arrested in September 2012 for attempting to detonate a bomb outside a Chicago bar, and that Tounisi and Daoud appeared to share an interest in violent jihad.
While Tounisi allegedly discussed attack techniques and targets prior to Daoud’s arrest, Tounisi did not participate in Daoud’s attempted attack, the press release said.
According to the complaint, Tounisi conducted online research related to overseas travel and violent jihad, focusing specifically on Syria and the Jabhat al Nusrah terrorist group. Jabhat al Nusrah is listed by the U.S. Department of State as an alias for al Qaeda in Iraq, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
The complaint alleges that Tounisi searched online for information about travel from Chicago to Syria, obtained a new passport, and, beginning in late March 2013, made online contact with an individual Tounisi believed to be a recruiter for Jabhat al Nusrah. That individual was in fact an FBI employee acting in an online undercover capacity.
Tounisi and the undercover employee exchanged a series of e-mails in which Tounisi shared his plan to get to Syria by way of Turkey, as well as his willingness to die for the cause. During the exchanges, Tounisi also sought advice from the undercover employee on travel from Istanbul to the Turkish city of Gaziantep, which lies near the border of Turkey and Syria, according to the complaint.
If convicted of the charge filed against him, Tounisi faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison.
The JTTF is composed of special agents of the FBI, officers of the Chicago Police Department, and representatives from an additional 20 federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. The Justice Department’s National Security Division assisted in the investigation.
Editor's note: This article was written by Rick Nagel. Reported by Patch 43 minutes ago.