Zion ISIS Fans Considered Attack On Great Lakes Navy Base: FBI

CHICAGO, IL — Two north suburban men were arrested for conspiracy to help the Islamic State terrorist group Wednesday, federal prosecutors said. Joseph Jones, 35, and Edward Schimenti, 35, both of Zion, are charged with conspiring to knowingly provide and attempt to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), according to the U.S. Attorney's office in Chicago.

In the fall of 2015, undercover agents befriended the pair, allegedly convincing them they were fellow ISIS devotees. They discussed their commitment to ISIS at a series of meetings with the agents over the next several months in Chicago, Gurnee, Highland Park, Waukegan, Zion, Bridgeview and North Chicago, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Jones and Schimenti are accused of providing the FBI informants with cell phones they believed would be given to ISIS and used by the group to make improvised explosive devices. They also allegedly helped train and support an informant in what they believed was his trip to Syria in order to join ISIS.

Jones (who also went by the name Yusuf Abdulhaqq) and Schimenti (sometimes known as Abdul Wali) pledged allegiance to ISIS and advocated violent extremism in support of the group on social media, the feds said. One of the undercover FBI employees provided Jones and Schimenti with an ISIS flag with which the pair allegedly took several pictures.

Under a pseudonym, Jones allegedly published a series of pro-ISIS posts, as well as a "46-page traveler's guide to the Islamic State." It concluded, "When we descend on the streets of London, Paris, and Washington...not only will we spill your blood, but we will also demolish your statues, erase your history, and, most painfully, convert your children who will then go on to champion our name and curse of their forefathers."

» MORE: Complete federal complaint against Joseph D. Jones and Edward Schimenti (PDF)

Schimenti did not bother to use a pseudonym, according to the complaint. Under his own name, he posted a series of endorsements of terrorist groups, including ISIS and Boko Haram, prosecutors say.

"Islamic State will control your country, matter of fact, Islam will dominate the world!!" Schimenti allegedly posted in 2015. He suggested he would like to see the ISIS flag "on top of the White House," the complaint said.

Also in 2015, Schimenti was banned from Lake County Black Lives Matter events after he delivered a "radical" rant advocating violence against law enforcement, the chair of Lake County Black Lives Matter told the Chicago Tribune.

According to a Twitter account created in his in 2015, Schimenti believed he was being targeted by the federal government. A post on the account claimed the user had been banned from Facebook.

Speaking with one of the confidential informants in 2017, he allegedly said, "You can Google my name and I put it in English so the Kuffar [infidels] can see, Islamic State here to stay!"

While being recorded by the FBI, Schimenti allegedly suggested he was gathering the courage to conduct an attack at one of the weekly graduations of sailors at nearby Naval Station Great Lakes in North Chicago.

At the same time, Schimenti appeared to be concerned he was being entrapped by federal agents, allegedly saying he had a "real funny feeling" about a person claiming to be able to facilitate travel to ISIS-controlled territory. That person turned out to be an undercover FBI employee.

During a March 17 audiotaped meeting with a government source in Highland Park, Schimenti confided his suspicions that the agent "was trying to 'entrap' him by asking Schimenti if he wanted to 'rock it out [conduct an attack against the homeland],'" according to the federal complaint.

Last Friday, after having dinner with an FBI informant, Schimenti and Jones drove to O’Hare International Airport in Chicago with the understanding that the informant would be traveling from Chicago to Syria to join and fight with ISIS, prosecutors said.

On Wednesday morning, authorities executed a search warrant at Jones’ residence in Zion. Both men had their first federal court appearance before U.S. Magistrate Judge M. David Weisman in Chicago later in the day.

Top photo: A picture of figures prosecutors say are Jones and Schimenti holding an ISIS flag at Beach State Park in Zion (Department of Justice)