NEW YORK CITY — An undercover NYPD officer's nearly yearlong investigation into a Jamaica-based terror suspect as part of the Manhattan District Attorney's Counter Terrorism Program led to the man's indictment in a New York State Supreme court, the DA's office announced Friday.
Trevor William Forrest, 53, also known as Shaikh Abdullah Faisal, of St. James, Jamaica has been indicted on a host of terror charges for attempting to recruit members for the terror group ISIS and for facilitating travel of an ISIS sympathizer from New York to Syria, according to the DA's office.
“Shaikh Faisal has dedicated his life to terror recruitment,” said DA Cyrus Vance Jr. in a statement. “Through his lectures, website, and videos, he incites untold numbers of people around the world to take up the cause of jihad."
The undercover officer involved in the operation started communicating with Faisal in December 2016, and over the following months talked to him over email, text and video chats, according to the DA's office. Faisal encouraged the officer to view his lectures and Islamic State propaganda, and offered to help bring the officer to the Middle East to support fighters and to connect with other contacts in the effort, according to the office.
When the undercover officer expressed interested in traveling abroad, Faisal offered to help the officer marry someone in the Islamic State. The officer then traveled to the Middle East and, upon arrival, Faisal connected the officer to a contact in Raqqa, Syria who in early 2017 began working to help facilitate entry into the Islamic State, the DA's office said.
Faisal has been charged with two counts of soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism, two counts of attempted soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism, and one count of conspiracy in the fourth degree as a crime of terrorism — all felonies.
It was not immediately clear whether Faisal will be extradited to New York.
