A young American “carefully” laid plans to join ISIS and kill American soldiers with suicide drones and exploding cars, prosecutors allege.
Jibreel Pratt, 25, hid a gun and ammunition in a wall of his Detroit home and had a phone hidden in a dog food container.
He recorded himself pledging his life to terrorism, bought plane tickets to the Middle East, purchased weapons and equipment, and wrote a farewell letter to his family.
Pratt’s horrific plan was meticulously scribbled on 30 handwritten notes titled “my personal plans,” prosecutors wrote in court papers.
“He drew and sent tactical diagrams to fight American soldiers and use explosives on the doors to kill them,” they wrote.
Jibreel Pratt, 25, “carefully” laid out plans to join ISIS and kill American soldiers with suicide drones and exploding cars, prosecutors allege.
“And on two separate occasions, Pratt sent obscure crypto payments to fund ISIS operations, including funding an ‘istishhadi’ (or martyrdom) brother.”
Other plans allegedly included the use of suicide drones and bomb-laden remote-controlled cars, all prepared in his grandmother’s basement.
Pratt reportedly detailed his desire to create a “specialized unit for intelligence-based operations” that would “undetectedly kill or kidnap” an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS recruiter, starting in February 2023.
He laid out plans for ISIS to “operate in the shadows” and use its computer skills to create an “intelligence arm,” court documents allege.
‘He planned to travel to the Middle East, join the terrorist organization and serve ISIS as a leader. He was also willing to create a terrorist cell here.
Pratt’s horrific plan was meticulously scribbled on 30 handwritten notes titled “my personal plans.”
Pratt allegedly boasted to the ISIS recruiter that he would be “a great asset” to ISIS, knew how to hack cryptocurrency, and had a hacking skill called “penetration testing,” which meant “breaching companies’ systems.”
He allegedly sent Bitcoin payments of $350 and $546 to ISIS through a fake recruiter in March and May of last year, believing they would help ISIS operations.
Pratt was allegedly funding his planning with a crypto fraud scheme that amassed an unexplained $102,000 worth of Bitcoin.
“Pratt had sporadic employment in recent years, but was still able to accumulate several firearms, ammunition, combat equipment, an apartment and sophisticated computer equipment,” prosecutors alleged.
In August last year he told the undercover agent: “I’m willing to leave this place forever” and was accumulating money for his trip to the Middle East.
‘In Pratt’s own words, he planned to ‘leave it all behind’ because ‘these people are savages.’ Like mad dogs,’ prosecutors wrote.
Instead, the FBI arrested him at the Detroit airport on August 26, charged him with crypto fraud, and released him on bail.
Pratt allegedly detailed his desire to create a “specialized unit for intelligence-based operations” that would “kill or kidnap without being detected.”
‘ERASE EVERYTHING…I WAS CAPTURED AND NOW RELEASED. I WILL CONTACT YOU SOON SAFELY,” he wrote to the fake recruiter when he posted bail.
Days later he wrote: ‘The future is uncertain, I need to go brother.’
“He told the (informant) that his ‘drive and determination have not diminished but increased’… (and) warned that ‘I am no longer worried about these people, if anything, they should be worried about me,'” the men wrote. prosecutors. .
“He wanted to ‘grow’ ISIS to ‘even greater heights’ than when it had unleashed savage tyranny across the Middle East.”
Pratt also “targeted and deceived a citizen whom he misidentified” as the FBI agent who arrested him.
He redoubled his efforts and booked a Delta Airlines flight to Istanbul, Turkey, and had photos taken for a fake passport.
He then wrote a farewell letter to his family, which he later found hidden in Islamic books on his windowsill, including his father and ‘PawPaw’.
‘Take care and stay safe. Things just weren’t working out for me, no matter what I did or tried,” he wrote to his father.
‘We all have our own paths in life, while mine might be shortened, I only hope that one day you will come to know the true Islam so that we can meet in Jannah.
‘If not, I love you and it was a pleasure meeting you and so much laughter.’
During a search, they found the hidden weapons, including an AR-style semi-automatic rifle (pictured) and a pistol.
Before he could board the plane, police swooped Tuesday and arrested him.
During a search, they found the hidden weapons, including an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a handgun.
Pratt allegedly bragged to the undercover agent that he was “packing his bags” and once threatened to shoot a man who confronted him at a gas station.
“The fact that Pratt has not yet fulfilled his goal of traveling to fight for ISIS does not diminish his danger to the community,” prosecutors argued, asking to keep him behind bars.
‘Quite the opposite. Pratt told the (informant) that he wanted to ‘start here…and create the cell here’ because ‘if my work is related to cells, we should get established here before I leave.’
‘Pratt’s statements are powerful evidence of his dangerousness, and he provided them unfiltered to the ISIS source.
“Pratt’s ongoing dialogue with the ISIS source is replete with Pratt’s violent plans and is ample evidence of his danger to the community.”
Pratt is accused of attempting to provide material support and resources to a terrorist organization and faces 20 years in prison on each count if convicted.