OXFORD, Miss. — A judge has ordered two Mississippi residents charged with planning to join Islamic State be held by the court until a grand jury hearing.
Criminal charge filed Saturday says Jaelyn Delshaun Young, 19, and Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla, 22, were arrested Monday morning at Golden Triangle Regional Airport near Columbus, Mississippi.
The charge indicate undercover FBI agents engaged online with Young about her desire to travel to Syria to join the group. Both she and Dakhlalla purchased Delta Air Lines tickets to Istanbul.
An affidavit by an FBI agent says both confessed to plans to join the Islamic State group.
According to the Justice Department, “This investigation began in May 2015, when the defendant expressed a desire to travel to Syria in support of ISIL, and made several supportive statements about the designated foreign terrorist organization. Both defendants subsequently expressed their readiness to travel overseas to join ISIL.
The defendants procured passports and made arrangements to fly to Istanbul via Amsterdam. On or about Aug. 8, 2015, Young and Dakhlalla traveled to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in Columbus, Mississippi, for their international flight. The defendants were arrested and, according to the complaint, were interviewed and both confessed to attempting to travel to Turkey to join ISIL in Syria.
The charge in the complaint carries a maximum of potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Both Young and Dakhlalla are U.S. citizens. Mississippi State University records show both enrolled there until May.
It was unclear what lawyers are representing them.