A man from Florida He has been sentenced by a federal court to 20 years in prison plus another 15 years of supervised release, for giving material support to the Islamic State after swearing allegiance to the jihadist group in 2014, when the group’s then leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, declared a “caliphate” in parts of Iraq and Syria.
African-American Romeo Xavier Langhorne, 32, of St. Augustine, in the northeastern part of the state, pleaded guilty in the Middle District of Florida to one count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS on May 13, 2021.
According to court documents, Langhorne swore allegiance to ISIS in 2014, knowing it was a foreign terrorist organization that engaged in acts of terrorism.
Between 2018 and 2019, the now convicted reaffirmed his support for ISIS on various social media accounts, posted ISIS-produced videos on his YouTube account, and participated in chat rooms. chatonline from ISIS with like-minded people.
In December 2018 and January 2019, Langhorne expressed interest in one of those chat rooms in creating a video that would improve on existing videos demonstrating the manufacture and use of a deadly explosive, triacetone triperoxide (TATP), according to the Department of Justice.
In February 2019, he began communicating with an undercover FBI agent posing as someone working on behalf of ISIS. At that time, Langhorne mentioned his plans to create and broadcast an instructional video on how to do TATP and sought the help of the undercover agent to create the video.
The defendant further informed him that his true purpose in making the video was to arm ISIS supporters and others with the knowledge of how to make bombs and use it for terrorism-related purposes in support of ISIS.
The FBI produced a video according to Langhorne’s instructions, but unbeknownst to Langhorne, it featured an inert chemical formula for TATP that would not cause an explosion. In November 2019, the man distributed the video through a web platform.
Langhorne was arrested at his residence in Roanoke, Virginia, on November 15, 2019. In a post-arrest interview, he admitted that he “probably at some point” swore allegiance to both ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was the leader of ISIS. ISIS from 2014 until his death on October 26, 2019.
Deputy Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Department of Justice’s National Security Division, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Roger B. Handberg, Acting Deputy Director Kevin Vorndran of the FBI Counterterrorism Division, and Special Agent in Charge Sherri E. Onks of the Jacksonville, Florida field office made the announcement of the outcome of the trial.
