Seattle man pleads guilty to trying to join ISIS

A Seattle man has pleaded guilty to allegedly trying to leave the U.S. and join the terrorist organization ISIS. 

In a statement on Monday, the Department of Justice said Elvin Hunter Bgorn Williams was arrested by authorities following a lengthy investigation.

The FBI has closely monitored Williams’s activity, saying he began communicating with those he believed were ISIS recruiters who could get him into an Islamic State terror cell in the Middle East and other parts of the world, according to the statement. 

According to his plea agreement, Williams also told his family that he was an ISIS member, posting a Facebook video where he swore an oath to the terrorist organization. 

Authorities arrested Williams in May as he was preparing to board an international flight with the intention of joining ISIS.

Williams booked flights from Seattle to Amsterdam and en route to Egypt, where he planned to join the terrorist organization. The FBI was first tipped by a Seattle-area mosque in November 2020 of Willliams’s intentions to possibly join the Islamic State. 

Williams, 21, has pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 14, facing a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.