Idaho teen faces federal terrorism charge. Prosecutors say he planned to attack a church for ISIS

BOISE, Idaho– A teenager planned to attack churches in a northern Idaho town using a metal pipe, butane fuel, a machete and, if he could get them, his father’s guns, according to federal prosecutors who accused him of materially to provide support to the Islamic State. group.

Authorities said Alexander Scott Mercurio, 18, adopted the Islamic faith against the wishes of his Christian parents and had contact with FBI informants posing as Islamic State supporters.

Mercurio was arrested Saturday, the day before investigators believe he planned to carry out the attack. Court documents did not indicate whether he had an attorney, and phone messages left for a family member were not immediately returned Tuesday. Mercurio did not immediately respond to an email via an inmate email system.

Mercurio told an informant he planned to kill his father with the pipe, handcuff him and steal his guns and a car to carry out the attack in Coeur d’Alene, according to an FBI affidavit agent in the case unsealed in U.S. District Court on Monday. .

The weapons included rifles, pistols and ammunition that his father kept in a locked cupboard, but Mercurio still planned to attack with the pipe, fire and knives if he couldn’t get the firearms, the affidavit alleged FBI Task Force Officer John Taylor II. .

If he could get the key and gain access to the closet, Mercurio said in an audio recording he gave to the informant, “everything will be so much easier and better and I will achieve better things,” according to the statement.

The shot was to accompany a photo the informant took of Mercurio in front of the Islamic State flag, holding up a knife and his index finger in a gesture often used by the group, the statement alleged.

After attacking the church, Mercurio told the informant that he planned to attack others in the city — as many as 21 — before being martyred to death, according to the affidavit.

Mercurio spoke to confidential informants for two years and at one point tried to build an explosive vest to wear during the attacks, the affidavit alleges.

Mercurio told a confidential informant that he first had contact with the Islamic State group during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when schools were closed, Taylor said, and investigators later found several files on his school-issued laptop containing the ideology of the Islamic State group was described. Mercurio’s parents disapproved of his beliefs. He allegedly told this to a confidential informant posing as a supporter of the Islamic State group. Eventually, Mercurio began to worry that he was a hypocrite because he had not yet carried out an attack, the statement said.

“I have stopped asking and praying for martyrdom because I don’t feel like I want to fight and die for the sake of Allah. I just want to die and all my problems will disappear,” he wrote in a message to the informant, the statement said.

On March 21, Mercurio sent another direct message to the informant, saying he was restless and frustrated and wondered how long he could continue living “in such a humiliated and shameful state,” the statement alleged.

“I have nothing but motivation for fighting… such as a time of insatiable bloodlust for the lifeblood of these idolaters; a desire for chaos and murder to terrorize those around me. I need better weapons than knives,” the direct message said.

Law enforcement officers arrested Mercurio after he sent an audio file pledging his allegiance to the Islamic State group, the statement alleged.

“Thanks to the FBI’s investigative efforts, the suspect was taken into custody before he could take action, and he is now charged with attempting to support ISIS’s mission of terror and violence,” Attorney General Merrick Garland wrote in a press release. The Department of Justice will continue to relentlessly pursue, disrupt, and hold accountable those who would commit terrorist acts against the people and interests of the United States.

If Mercurio is found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison. Mercurio has not yet had an opportunity to enter a plea, and he is being held in a northern Idaho jail as he awaits his first court appearance.

___

Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming, contributed to this report.