A North Texas man is in federal custody, accused of providing bomb components and money to help what he believed was ISIS.<\/p>\n
Instead, authorities say the man was unknowingly communicating with undercover law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n
The suspect, 21-year-old John Garza Jr., was born in Arlington and lives with his family in Midlothian, according to his father, John Garza Sr., who spoke with NBC 5.<\/p>\n
Garza Sr. said he works with his son at a restoration business and was shocked to learn of the allegations.<\/p>\n
According to a federal criminal complaint, an undercover New York Police Department employee began messaging an Instagram account in mid-October. The account had followed several pro-ISIS profiles and commented on a post promoting the Islamic State.<\/p>\n
The complaint said the undercover employee portrayed themself as an ISIS fighter in Iraq and developed a rapport with the account holder, who was later identified as Garza Jr.<\/p>\n
Throughout the complaint, Garza is described as sharing support for the Islamic State, including ISIS press releases, a video depicting a suicide bombing and a photo of what he described as his computer setup inside his Midlothian home. The image displayed the Ajnad logo, an ISIS media outlet.<\/p>\n
In November and December, the U.S. Department of Justice says Garza sent about $40 in Bitcoin to the undercover officer. After receiving a photo of three guns, which the officer claimed had been purchased with the money, Garza reportedly said he would send more.<\/p>\n
The two-and-a-half-month investigation culminated in a meeting at a Dallas park on Dec. 22, according to the complaint. Investigators say Garza met with another undercover officer, whom he believed to be an ISIS \u201cbrother,\u201d and handed over bomb-making materials. He also sent a video explaining how to build a device.<\/p>\n
Garza was arrested roughly 30 minutes later at his home in Midlothian.<\/p>\n
The DOJ says a search of the home uncovered what Garza had described as a detonator.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn’t want to be the person charged. It looks like a pretty strong case,\u201d said retired FBI Special Agent Edward Shaw, who commended the multi-agency investigation.<\/p>\n
Garza\u2019s father told NBC 5 the allegations came as a complete shock. He said his son has never expressed pro-ISIS ideations and was diagnosed with a neurological disorder. He believes his son was preyed upon and pressured into doing things he would not have done otherwise.<\/p>\n
He said he is now mounting a fight for his son\u2019s freedom.<\/p>\n
Garza made his first court appearance on Dec. 23. Another hearing is scheduled for Dec. 30.<\/p>\n
If convicted, Garza faces up to 20 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A North Texas man is in federal custody, accused of providing bomb components and money to help what…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28728,27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-106065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-midlothian","9":"tag-texas","10":"tag-texas-headlines","11":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}