ROANOKE, Va. – A Roanoke man has been indicted for attempting to provide materials and resources in support of ISIS, the Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Romeo Xavier Langhorne, 30, was arrested in Roanoke on Nov. 15, pursuant to a criminal complaint.
Langhorne has been a follower of ISIS since 2014 and has recently publicly reaffirmed his support for the terrorist organization, investigators say.
Starting in February 2019, Langhorne communicated with an undercover FBI employee posing as someone working on behalf of ISIS. Langhorne told the undercover employee about his plans to create a video instructing others how to make a deadly explosive, according to the Department of Justice.
Langhorne told the undercover employee that though he planned to label the video as intended for “educational purposes” only, its true purpose was to arm ISIS followers with knowledge of how to make the explosive and use it for terrorism-related purposes. He asked for the undercover employee’s help in creating the video, according to the Department of Justice.
The FBI produced a video and delivered it to Langhorne. The video provided by the FBI apparently featured a chemical formula that would not produce an explosion. Langhorne uploaded the video to a video-sharing site.
10 News spoke with Langhorne’s mother in November, who said her son has “mental disorders."
“The FBI knows he is not a threat,” Virginia Langhorne said.
Langhorne faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison if convicted.