North Carolina man tried to board flight to join Islamic State group, authorities say
A North Carolina man was arrested while trying to board an overseas flight so he could join the Islamic State group, according to a federal complaint unsealed Tuesday.
Alexander Justin White, a U.S. citizen from Durham, is charged by federal prosecutors with providing, attempting and conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. White’s arrest on December 4 came after a months-long investigation into numerous pro-IS messages that prosecutors say the 29-year-old sent to several Facebook users and an undercover FBI agent.
White, who went by the name Sulaiman Al-Amriki — meaning Sulaiman the American — on social media for part of last year, posted pro-ISIS content on Facebook several times between June and October 2024, prosecutors said. Some of the content included IS and other Islamic extremist propaganda videos.
During this period, federal prosecutors said White spoke to several social media users claiming to be from the Middle East and North Africa about his support for ISIS. According to court documents, he told several users that he wanted to travel to Africa and also join ISIS. White also lamented missed opportunities to join the militant group on previous trips — such as during a 2018 visit to Egypt — in online conversations, authorities said.
White also spoke regularly with an undercover FBI agent for several months, including several mentions of wanting to join IS and a staged video call that White believed was with the spokesman for an IS commander, prosecutors said.
During text conversations with the agent, officials said White expressed his willingness to be a mujahid, the Arabic word for “holy warrior,” and discussed fundraising for detained IS members and their relatives.
After several months of discussing his plans to travel abroad and join ISIS, White sent the agent a screenshot of his upcoming itinerary, which showed a December 4 flight departing from Raleigh International Airport Durham to Rabat, Morocco, court records show.
To avoid raising suspicions about the flight, White purchased a round-trip ticket, prosecutors said.
White later arrived at RDU Airport on Dec. 4 with three bags, where he checked in for his connecting flight to Paris and went through security, authorities said. He was then arrested a few hours later while trying to board the plane.
A federal public defender appointed to represent White declined to comment Wednesday on the ongoing case.