An American man who conspired with Islamic State to kill thousands of people, according to federal investigators, was sentenced today to life behind bars.
Prosecutors have commented that this case illustrates the dangers of the radicalisation of young Americans through social media.
Justin Sullivan, 21, pleaded guilty to plotting to attack a nightclub or concert and film it for distribution on terrorist websites.
Credit: Asheville Police
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Sullivan had planned to target a large event in Charlotte, North Carolina with an assault rifle that he was planning to purchase at a gun show. Authorities arrested Sullivan the day before he was able to buy any firearms.
"Justin Sullivan had elaborate plans to kill hundreds of innocent people to show his support for the terrorist organisation, ISIL," said FBI Special Agent in Charge John Strong, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Charlotte, NC - the city Sullivan was to target in the foiled attack. Credit: Google Maps
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"During the course of our investigation, evidence was uncovered linking Sullivan to John Bailey Clark's murder six months earlier."
A federal Indictment against Sullivan linked him to an unsolved murder dating back to 2014.
John Bailey Clark, 74, was a neighbour of Sullivan and his parents. Sullivan is suspected of murdering him and burying his body in a shallow grave.
Investigators were first made aware of Sullivan in April 2015 when they received a tip off from his father, a retired US marine.
Sullivan's father told them that he first became alarmed when his son started pouring petrol over religious figurines in the family's home.
U.S. Attorney Jill Westmoreland Rose said that Sullivan was radicalised in 2014, when he took to watching terrorist beheadings and various other ISIS propaganda online.
Sullivan also admitted to having frequent contact online with a prominent - now deceased - Islamic State recruiter and propagandist in Syria, Junaid Hussain. Rose said that Hussain requested that Sullivan make a video of his planned attack so that it could be used online for IS recruitment.
"They know this is a way to win the hearts and minds of American youth or those who may be disenfranchised in some way," Rose told reporters after the sentencing hearing.
"Certainly the use of social media by foreign terrorist organizations, particularly ISIS, is one of the ways that they're most effective."
Earlier on Wednesday, police in Spain issued European arrest warrants for six people believed to have links with IS - one of the men is a 44-year-old who was arrested in Birmingham.
West Midlands counter-terrorism unit arrested the man at a property in Sparkhill early on Wednesday morning on a tip-off from a Spanish investigation into online terrorist propaganda material.
Spanish authorities said the man was an imam practising Salafism, an ultra-conservative form of Islam. He was wanted in several different countries.
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