Florida resident Romeo Xavier Langhorne, 32, St Augustine, Florida, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for spreading a bomb-making video, pleading his allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria terrorist group, also known as ISIS.
After pleading guilty to attempting to provide material support to ISIS on May 13th, 2021, Langhorne’s support for ISIS had first been recorded to begin in the year 2014, with full understanding then that ISIS was a designated terrorist group. Fast forward to 2018, Langhorne had uploaded ISIS-produced videos to YouTube and joined ISIS chat rooms where he met others who shared his interests, according to Breaking911.
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In February of 2019, Langhorne came into contact with an undercover FBI employee (UCE) who was posing as an individual working for ISIS, informing said employee about his intentions towards the making and use of a deadly bomb device, known as triacetone tiperoxide (TATP). Langhorne later informed the UCE that he had intentions of creating the video to serve as a guide for and arm ISIS members with information that would facilitate a terrorist attack.
In 2019, Langhorne instructed his UCE that he wanted to create a form of Islamic Vocal music, known as Nasheed, in hopes to add recordings of violent phrases to them. According to Breaking911, it was explained by Langhorne that he had intentions of doing so to encourage retaliation against the United States for its role in killing Muslims. Langhorne received a video with a chemical formula for the triacetone tiperoxide, but one that would not produce an explosion. Langhorne contended that the video should contain disclaimer information and to be intended as purely educational so it would not be taken down from social media platforms.
He was arrested in his area of residency in Roanoke, Virginia on Nov.15, 2019. Langhorn admitted that he himself talked to the UCE and sought to upload the video with TATP and pledged his loyalty to both ISIS and its former leader, terrorist Abu Baker al-Baghdadi, who was killed on Oct.26, 2019.
The FBI Jacksonville Joint Terrorism Task Force in Florida was able to catch Langhorne early on, including Special Agent Sherri E. Onks who made a statement regarding the story about the terrorist reported by Fox News.
The willingness of this dangerous individual to go to great lengths to harm innocent Americans was always very real, but through hard work and determination, the FBI Jacksonville Joint Terrorism Task Force successfully disrupted his plan early on, and averted a threat to the safety of our community.
According to Breaking911, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olson of the Justice Department, U.S Attorney for the Middle District of Florida Roger B. Handgberg, and Assitant Director Kevin Vorndran of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division also made the announcement.
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