ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A St. Augustine man arrested in Nov. 2019 has pleaded guilty to charges of attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to a news release from the Department of Justice.
According to court documents, Romeo Xavier Langhorne, 31, pledged his allegiance to ISIS at some point in 2014, knowing that ISIS was a designated terrorist organization, the news release states.
The DOJ said that throughout 2018 and 2019, Langhorne posted his support for ISIS on social media accounts and posted ISIS-produced videos to his YouTube account.
In December 2018 and January 2019, the DOJ said, Langhorne was in a chat room where he shared an interest in creating a video that would demonstrate the making and use of an explosive.
In 2019, Langhorne started talking with an FBI agent who was posing as someone working on behalf of ISIS. Langhorne and the FBI agent engaged in multiple conversations, which were detailed in his arrest affidavit. In the conversations, the affidavit said, Langhorne directed the agent in the production of a video that would give instructions on how to discreetly acquire the materials to make the explosive TATP.
Langhorne was arrested at his residence in Roanoke, Virginia, on Nov. 15, 2019. While in custody, the news release states, Langhorne admitted that he had “probably at some point” pledged allegiance to ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was the leader of ISIS.
If convicted, Langhorne faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison, the DOJ said.