By EMMA RICHTER, US SENIOR NEWS REPORTER
A Navy sailor was arrested in California after he was found to be a part of a twisted ISIS plot that included his desire to ‘kill 300 million Americans,’ according to officials.
Bereen Dzayee, 25, of Lakeside, was nabbed by the FBI on Friday, along with two 21-year-old men: Elias Shamsaldeen, of Porterville, California, and Bisaam Ghafoor, of Leawood, Kansas, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.
The trio had been conversing online for more than a year and paid $2,000 to someone they believed was a member of the foreign terrorist organization after being told the funds would help them purchase drones and rocket-propelled grenades, prosecutors alleged.
In their messages, they discussed their detailed plans to travel out of the US and fight for ISIS, a complaint filed in Kansas federal court stated.
But it was Dzayee, who donned a Navy uniform in a now-deleted Instagram post, who specifically suggested that they target the US Special Forces, an elite American military unit, prosecutors alleged.
Meanwhile, Shamsaldeen told his online pals he wanted to ‘stab and injure a US servicemember, while Ghafoor told them: ‘I wish I could kill 300,000,000 Americans.’
Ghafoor also shared his desire to behead a female soldier, and that it would be ‘sick’ if his name was written on the drone they wished to use in the alleged attack, the DOJ revealed.
‘In some of these communications, they expressed a willingness to die on behalf of ISIS,’ authorities said.