Mass. Man Gets 20 Years For Planning ISIS-Inspired Attack

ADAMS, MA—An Adams man was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Springfield for his part in a plot to engage in terrorist activity inspired by and in the name of ISIS, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced.

Alexander Ciccolo, AKA Ali Al Amriki, 26, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release. In May 2018, Ciccolo pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, one count of attempting to use weapons of mass destruction, one count of being a convicted person in possession of firearms, and one count of assaulting a nurse during a jail intake process by use of a deadly weapon causing bodily injury.

“Alexander Ciccolo planned to kill innocent civilians in the United States on ISIS’s behalf,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Andrew E. Lelling said in a statement. “Even though he was born and spent most of his life in Massachusetts, Ciccolo decided to turn against his country and plotted to attack his fellow Americans.”

“The National Security Division will not tolerate threats to our country and its people,” added Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers in a statement. “Not only did Ciccolo admit to supporting ISIS — a well-known terrorist group — but he also collected weapons and explosives in order to further their goal of murdering innocent Americans. This sentence holds him accountable for breaking our laws and putting American lives at risk.”

“Make no mistake, Alexander Ciccolo was a committed soldier of ISIS who wanted to kill innocent people at a United States university with assault rifles and pressure cooker bombs, not an unwitting dupe who didn’t understand the gravity of what he was doing,” said Harold H. Shaw, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in a statement.

Ciccolo was a soldier of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization, and responded to a call to commit attacks on the U.S., authorities said. When he was arrested in July 2015, he was planning to attack a university using firearms and improvised explosives, they said. Even after being arrested, Ciccolo attacked a nurse who was trying to provide him medical care.

Before his arrest in July 2015, Ciccolo had spoken with an informant about his plans to commit acts of terrorism inspired by ISIS, said the announcement. The plans included setting off improvised explosive devices, such as pressure cookers filled with black powder, nails, ball bearings and glass, in places where large numbers of people congregate, like college cafeterias. Prior to his arrest, agents had observed Ciccolo buy a pressure cooker similar to that used in the Boston Marathon bombings.

On July 4, 2015, Ciccolo was arrested after he received four firearms ordered from a cooperating witness who had been communicating with him about his plans to engage in a terrorist act. Ciccolo was arrested in possession of a Colt AR-15 .223 caliber rifle, a SigArms Model SG550-1 556 rifle, a Glock 17-9 mm pistol, and a Glock 20-10 mm pistol.

In addition, several partially constructed Molotov cocktails were found in Ciccolo’s apartment after he was arrested. Shortly after his arrest, while at the Franklin County Correctional Center, Ciccolo stabbed a nurse with a pen more than ten times, leaving a bloody gash on the top of the nurse’s head.

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