Virginia man allegedly shopped for guns in Charlotte for terrorist attack

A former National Guardsman from Virginia is being accused by the U.S. Justice Department of trying to buy guns in Charlotte for a domestic terrorist attack on a military base.

Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 26, of Sterling, Va., was arrested on Sunday and charged with attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State group.

Jalloh is alleged to have attempted to provide his services to ISIS by getting weapons to be used in what he believed was going to be an attack on U.S. soil committed in the name of ISIS. In addition, he is charged with providing money to the terrorist group and working to recruit individuals to join ISIS.

The affidavit says Jalloh spent four hours in the Charlotte area on June 18, traveling to various locations to try to buy an AK-47 and other weapons. The affidavit says those attempts failed because people in the area refused to sell to him. It is unclear if he attempted to buy those guns from gun shops or individual owners.

Jalloh was expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Anderson of the Eastern District of Virginia.

According to court documents, in March 2016 a now-deceased member of ISIS brokered an introduction between Jalloh and an individual in the United States who was actually an FBI confidential informant. The ISIS member was actively plotting an attack in the U.S. and believed the attack would be carried out with the assistance of Jalloh and the FBI informant.

According to court documents, Jalloh met with the informant on two occasions in April and May 2016. During one of those meetings, Jalloh allegedly praised the gunman who killed five U.S. military members in a terrorist attack in Chattanooga, Tenn., in July 2015, and he stated that he had been thinking about doing an attack similar to the November 2009 attack at Fort Hood, Texas.

After making several failed attempts to buy guns in Charlotte last month, Jalloh is alleged to have gone to a gun dealership in northern Virginia on July 2, where he purchased and test-fired a Stag Arms assault rifle.

Jalloh didn’t know the rifle had been rendered inoperable before he left the dealership with the weapon, federal officials said. Jalloh was arrested the following day, and the FBI seized the rifle.

If convicted, Jalloh faces up to 20 years in prison. The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office Joint Terrorism Task Force.

This story was originally published July 5, 2016 at 2:30 PM with the headline "Virginia man allegedly shopped for guns in Charlotte for terrorist attack."