North Texas Man Pleads Guilty In Terrorism-Related Case
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NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A Mesquite man has pleaded guilty and admitted to lying to the FBI about his travels to fight with the group ISIS.
Bilal Abood faces up to eight years in federal prison for telling FBI agents he intended to travel to Iraq two years ago to visit family... when his real intentions were to go to Syria and take up arms.
Abood never made the trip, because he was stopped before boarding a plane at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. But weeks later he got on a plane in Mexico City, traveled to Syria, then Turkey, and fought alongside the terrorist group ISIS. He later pledged his allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the Islamic State.
The fact the 37-year-old made it out of the country, returned, and then wasn't arrested until two years later is not what former Dallas FBI chief Danny Defenbaugh would expect. "I'm extremely concerned, but I've been concerned anyway," he said. "You look to your southern border and it's still completely porous, even after what 14 years with them knowing [what happened on] 9/11/2001."
Defenbaugh says the crime of Making a False Statement to a Federal Agency is an old charge that is gaining new traction. "At one time it is very rarely used, now I think that they're [federal officials] using it greatly because you get a lot of these individuals who are going to make false statements and think that they can get away with it."
According to court documents, Abood is a naturalized U.S citizen who immigrated to the United States from Iraq in 2009. His sentencing date has not been set.
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