A young American man “meticulously” plotted 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 container of dog food.
He filmed himself pledging his life to terrorism, bought plane tickets to the Middle East, acquired weapons and equipment and wrote a farewell letter to his family.
Pratt’s gruesome plan was meticulously scribbled on 30 handwritten notes titled “my personal plans,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.
“He sketched and sent tactical diagrams for combating and using explosives in doorways to kill American soldiers,” they wrote.
Jibreel Pratt, 25, ‘meticulously’ plotted to join ISIS and kill American soldiers with suicide drones and exploding cars, prosecutors allege
“And on two separate occasions, Pratt sent shadowy crypto payments to fund ISIS operations, including funding an ‘istishhadi’ (or martyrdom) brother.”
Other plans reportedly include using suicide drones and remote-controlled cars packed with bombs – all prepared in his grandmother’s basement.
As of February 2023, Pratt allegedly explained his desire to create a “specialized intelligence-based operations unit” that would “kill or kidnap without detection” to an undercover FBI agent posing as an ISIS recruiter.
He presented plans for ISIS to “operate in the shadows” and use its IT skills to create an “intelligence arm,” the court documents alleged.
“He planned to travel to the Middle East, join the terrorist organization and serve ISIS as its leader. He was also prepared to set up a terrorist cell here.’
Pratt’s gruesome plan was meticulously scribbled on thirty handwritten notes entitled “my personal plans”
Pratt allegedly bragged to the ISIS recruiter that he would be “a great asset” to ISIS, knew how to hack cryptocurrency and had a computer hacking skill called “penetration testing,” which was intended to “break into companies’ systems .
He allegedly sent Bitcoin payments of $350 and $546 to ISIS through the fake recruiter in March and May last year, believing these would help ISIS operations.
Pratt allegedly funded his scheme with a crypto fraud scheme that netted $102,000 in unexplained Bitcoin.
“Pratt had sporadic work in recent years but was still able to amass several firearms, ammunition, combat gear, an apartment and sophisticated computer equipment,” prosecutors alleged.
In August last year, he told the undercover officer: “I’m ready to leave this place for good” and was raising money for his trip to the Middle East.
In Pratt’s own words, he planned to ‘leave everything behind’ because ‘these people wanted to be. Like rabid dogs,” prosecutors wrote.
Instead, the FBI arrested him at Detroit Airport on August 26, charged him with the crypto scam and released him on bail.
Pratt reportedly detailed his desire to create a “specialized intelligence-based operations unit” that would “kill or kidnap without detection”
‘DELETE EVERYTHING… I WAS CAUGHT AND NOW RELEASED. I WILL CONTACT YOU SOON SAFELY,” he wrote to the fake recruiter as he posted bail.
Days later he wrote: ‘The future is uncertain, I have to leave brother.’
“He told the (informant) that his ‘drive and determination have not diminished but increased’ … (and) warned that ‘I am no longer concerned about these people, if they should be concerned about me at all,'” the wrote prosecutors. .
“He wanted to ‘grow’ ISIS to even ‘greater heights’ than when it had unleashed brutal tyranny in the Middle East.”
Pratt had also “assaulted and deceived a citizen whom he falsely identified” 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 was later found hidden in Islamic books on his windowsill, including his father and ‘PawPaw’.
‘Take care of yourself and be safe. I just couldn’t do it no matter what I did or tried,” he wrote to his father.
‘We all have our own path in life, while mine could be shortened. I only hope that one day you will come to know true Islam so that we can meet in Jannah.
“If not, I love you and it was nice meeting you and laughing a lot.”
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 showed up on Tuesday and arrested him.
During a search, they found the hidden weapons, including an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a pistol.
Pratt allegedly bragged to the undercover officer that he was “packing” 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 fighting for ISIS does not reduce his danger to the community,” prosecutors alleged, filing a request 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 job involves cells, we had to settle here before I left.”
“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 overflowing with Pratt’s violent plans and is ample evidence of his danger to the community.”
Pratt is charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a terrorist organization and faces 20 years in prison on each charge if convicted.