In a press conference Monday, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger addressed the recent arrests of six alleged terrorists attempting to join ISIS.
“These are focused men who are intent on joining a terrorist organization by any means possible,” said Luger.
“The defendants are friends,” said Luger, adding they met several times to plan the trips to Syria.
He also said that the six terror suspects worked over the last ten months to join ISIS in Syria. One of the co-conspirators decided to leave the conspiracy and help the FBI learn about the plans of the group to leave the U.S. to join ISIS in Syria.
All six suspects are from Minnesota and part of the same conspiracy.
Luger added that what is remarkable about this case is that nothing stopped these defendants from attempting to reach their goal. He believes these arrests show that the FBI has made progress in its investigation into terrorist recruiting in Minnesota.
In this case, Luger explained, the answer as to how Minnesota has become a hotbed of terror recruiting is that these friends recruit each other–what he identified as peer to peer recruiting.