A teen from Idaho was detained on Saturday on suspicion of plotting a violent criminal assault against Christian temples in affiliation to ISIS.
Alexander Scott Mercurio, 18, was detained by federal law enforcement on Saturday after he pledged his allegiance to the criminal organization and planned to attack Holy churches on Sunday with “flame-covered arms, munitions, weapons, a knife, a pipe, and finally firearms,” according to a Justice Department press release.
Attorney General Merrick Garland stated that the plaintiff, as alleged in the issue, “planned to attack churches in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, with its oath of loyalty to ISIS” and” to the contrary” in its title. The defendant was taken into custody before he could work, and he is now accused of trying to assist ISIS’s mission of terror and violence, thanks to the FBI’s investigative efforts.
According to The Daily Wire, Mercurio was discovered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) in 2021 as part of a criminal investigation into a funding network for Islamic terrorist organizations. Additionally, in 2023, FBI investigators uncovered multiple pieces of evidence on Mercurio’s laptop that demonstrated the teen’s commitment to ISIS and his interest in” communism” and” socialism”.
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According to The Daily Wire, Mercurio claimed to a sworn-in FBI agent that the 18-year-old planned to emphasize the importance of responding” to the phone to the empire by killing Jews and Christians in his movie in which he allegedly pledged allegiance to the ISIS criminal business. The student from Idaho allegedly believed that by killing Catholics, he would be performing” a good contract.”
According to court documents obtained by Idaho Statesmen, Mercurio planned to “walk to the temple, take out the tube on fire on one end, hit people in the elbows and kneecaps, push them to the ground, slit their throats with a knife or machete, began tiny fires, use gas cans to launch at the little fires to cause an explosion, and then hide in a corner and attempt to grab the gun of an officer to use.”
In the Justice Department press release, FBI Director Christopher Wray described Mercurio’s plan to attack Idaho churches as” truly horrific”. The Joint Terrorist Task Force “detected and thwarted” the plan, according to Waray, and it highlights the FBI’s commitment to collaborate with other law enforcement organizations to” stop those who wish to commit acts of violence on behalf of – or inspired by – foreign terrorist groups.”
