The son of a police captain in Boston has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for plotting to carry out a terrorist attack in support of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Alexander Ciccolo, who also went by Ali Al Amriki, 23, was sentenced on Wednesday after pleading guilty in May to multiple counts, including attempting to provide support to a foreign terrorist group and attempting to use weapons of mass destruction.
{mosads}“The National Security Division will not tolerate threats to our country and its people,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers said in a Justice Department statement. “Not only did Ciccolo admit to supporting ISIS — a well-known terrorist group — but he also collected weapons and explosives in order to further their goal of murdering innocent Americans. This sentence holds him accountable for breaking our laws and putting American lives at risk.”
Ciccolo has been detained since he was arrested in 2015. He is the son of Boston police Capt. Robert Ciccolo, a veteran officer who alerted officials about his son last year.
Police say Alexander Ciccolo was a supporter of ISIS and had discussed plans to use guns and homemade bombs to wreak havoc in support of the group.
Authorities in 2015 found machetes and partially constructed Molotov cocktails in his apartment, the Justice Department said. He also told a government informant that he thought an ISIS-inspired slaughter that killed 38 people on a beach in Tunisia was “awesome,” officials added.