DC Metro Transit Cop Arrested for Allegedly Trying to Assist ISIS

ABC:

A veteran police officer with one of the nation's most prominent transit systems has been arrested for allegedly trying to help ISIS, as first reported by ABC News.

Authorities believe that while working for the Metro Transit Police Department around Washington, D.C. – a community he swore to protect – officer Nicholas Young was also trying to assist ISIS operatives find more ways to communicate in secret, sources told ABC News.

Young allegedly purchased technology-related items to send to the ISIS operatives so they could evade authorities when contacting each other, according to the sources.

Instead of allegedly engaging with true ISIS associates, however, Young was actually in touch with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in Washington, which has been conducting a lengthy undercover investigation into the officer.

There was "no pending threat to the D.C. transportation system," one source emphasized.

Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority CEO Paul Wiedefeld sent a note to colleagues this morning, notifying them of the case. Metro transit police "initiated" the probe into Young, and the FBI has been investigating for "several years" since, Wiedefeld said, adding that Young has been fired, "effective immediately."

Young, a 12-year veteran of the transit police force, was arrested this morning while at transit police headquarters in Washington, charged with attempting to provide material support to terrorists. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia, outside Washington.

He is expected to make his initial appearance later today in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia.

In the past three years, more than 100 Americans have been charged with trying to join ISIS or are suspected of supporting the group in some other way.