A federal judge ruled that a New York teen should be tried as an adult in a case that charged him with conspiring to support the Islamic State (ISIS) at a time when he was only 17 years of age.
The unidentified teenager is one of a half dozen men in New York and New Jersey who have been arrested by authorities since June as part of an investigation on U.S. residents who are trying to help the ISIS, Reuters reported.
U.S. law enforcement officers are pursuing "lone wolf" plotters who support ISIS in all 50 states.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the Paris terror attacks that killed 130 people.
Authorities said the teen, now 18, was a friend of Munther Omar Saleh, 20, a student at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens.
Saleh and an unnamed man planned to assemble an explosive device to be set off in the New York metropolitan area, authorities said.
Last August, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York indicted Saleh and Fareed Mumuni, 21, for attempting to provide material support to ISIS and assaulting and conspiring to assault federal officers.
On June 13, Saleh and another individual were arrested in Queens after they approached a federal agent while armed with knives.
During an execution of warrant on June 17, Mumuni was arrested after he repeatedly stabbed an FBI agent in the torso with a large kitchen knife.
Mumuni had discussed attacking law enforcement with a bomb with Sadeh, according to prosecutors.
The U.S. Justice Department filed a sealed motion with the court to try the teenager as an adult, citing the seriousness of his offense and that he was just shy of 18 at the time of his arrest.
U.S. District Judge Margo Brodie in Brooklyn granted the motion.
"Although their ultimate goals were never accomplished, this fact does not undermine the serious nature of their alleged conspiracy," she wrote.
Samuel Topaz and Alaa Saadeh, two other men charged in the conspiracy, pleaded guilty in New Jersey.
