A DC-area transit police officer has been arrested after a stunning ISIS sting operation

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WASHINGTON — A Washington-area transit police officer has been arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

Nicholas Young, 36, of Fairfax, Virginia, was arrested on Wednesday morning at police headquarters, the newspaper said. An indictment filed in federal court said Young sent a law-enforcement source codes for mobile messaging cards that Young believed would be used by Islamic State fighters to communicate.

Young was arrested in a sting operation orchestrated by the FBI, according to court documents from the Justice Department.

He first came to the attention of law enforcement in 2010, in connection with an acquaintance who had been charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, according to the criminal complaint.

Young, who has been employed as an officer with the Metro Transit Police department since 2003, had "numerous interactions" with undercover law enforcement officials posing as Islamic State sympathizers, according to the documents.

Young told the undercover officers how he "despised the FBI" and that someone with Young's skills could attack an FBI establishment, per the documents.

The criminal complaint also notes that Young mentioned how he used to torture animals as a child.

Young traveled to Libya in 2011 and told the FBI that he had embedded with rebels attempting to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi, per the documents. He carried a Kevlar helmet, body armor, and other military style items in his baggage.

In 2014, Young met with an FBI informant who posed as a US Army reservist of Middle Eastern descent who wanted to join the Islamic State, according to the documents.

Over the course of 20 meetings, Young told the informant how to "evade law enforcement detection" and to "watch out for informants and not discuss his plans with others," the documents said.

In late 2014, the informant led Young to believe he had traveled overseas and joined the Islamic State. Young sent emails asking the informant how he could send money to Islamic State commanders as well as about purchasing gift card codes for mobile-messaging accounts — that the Islamic State uses to recruit others, per the documents.

"Unfortunately I have enough flags on my name that I can't even buy a plane ticket without little alerts ending up in someone's hands, so I imagine banking transactions are automatically monitored and will flag depending on what is going on," one of his messages read, according to the documents.

In reality, Young was communicating with undercover FBI agents who had been posing as the informant electronically. The FBI redeemed the mobile-messaging codes for $245, according to the documents.

Young faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

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