Ohio man, 26, is arrested at the airport as he tries to leave the country to ‘join ISIS in Syria’ after telling agents he was the terror group’s ‘perfect recruit’
- Laith Waleed Alebbini was arrested at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport on Wednesday night
- The 26-year-old is a Jordanian native but was living in Dayton, Ohio
- FBI agents stopped him before he could board a plane to Jordan or Turkey
- Alebbini was arrested in January after trying to get in to the Turkish embassy in Washington illegally
- He told police at the time he was the terror group’s ‘perfect recruit’
An Ohio man was arrested in Kentucky on Wednesday as he tried to leave the country to allegedly join ISIS in Syria.
Laith Waleed Alebbini, 26, was stopped from boarding his flight at Cincinatti-Northern Kentucky International Airport.
FBI agents say the man, who is a Jordanian native, intended to board a plane bound for either Jordan and Turkey and that he intended to slip in to Syria from there.
In January, Alebbini was arrested for trying to enter the Turkish embassy illegally.
He was also stopped from trying to fly from Turkey on his expired Jordanian passport.
Afterwards, he said he was the terrorist group’s ‘perfect recruit’ but that he did not support them and had no plans to join its jihadists overseas, Cincinnati.com reports.
FBI agents honed in on him after he posted ISIS propaganda on Facebook.
They believe he intended to fly to Syria to join the organization in its fight against the country’s president Bashar al-Assad.
Immigration records show him arriving in the US in 2011 and becoming a resident in 2014.
In March, he moved to Dayton to begin living with a woman he claimed was his wife but within days he came across a confidential informant for the FBI.
The bureau’s Joint Terrorism Task Force launched an investigation into him afterwards.
Agents claim that the he was recorded telling the source that ISIS was the ‘best choice’ for the Middle East.
‘The best choice is the Islamic State, best choice for the Muslims,’ he allegedly said, later telling him he wanted to join the fight in Syria.
On April 15, he contacted the FBI to ask if he was allowed to travel because of his previous arrests.
The confidential source bought him and his wife tickets to travel to Jordan and Turkey. He was arrested on Wednesday before he was able to enter the security line at the Kentucky airport.
It is not clear whether or not his wife has been arrested or if she faces charges. He was due to appear in court in Ohio on Thursday afternoon.
