‘Jihad Elvis’ is arrested
‘Terrorist-wannabe’ jailhouse rocked
A Long Island doper who dreamed of engaging in “violent jihad” and even traveled abroad to join ISIS, led the feds to his own doorstep when he started gabbing about his intentions after a recent pot arrest, authorities said Saturday.
Elvis Redzepagic journeyed to Turkey and Jordan in attempts to enter Syria so he could join ISIS and the al-Nusra Front, the US Attorney’s Office said the day after the jihadist wannabe was busted at his Commack home.
Redzepagic, 26, who allegedly said he was ready to “strap a bomb on and sacrifice himself for jihad,” was held without bail Saturday after federal prosecutors labeled him a flight risk.
Police said Redzepagic has a rap sheet that goes back about five years, mostly for small-time offenses beginning in 2012, when he was arrested for punching a teen in the face and stealing his iPhone in Brooklyn. Two years later, he was busted for heroin possession, records show.
And just last month, he was nabbed for pot possession in Suffolk County and turnstile-jumping in the city, Big Apple, officials said.
The Feb. 2 weed bust put him on the feds’ radar, officials said.
“I’m going to leave this country and I’m going to come back with an army — Islam is coming,” Redzepagic, an American citizen, allegedly told Suffolk police officers after that arrest, according to court papers.
In the weeks that followed, he voluntarily spoke to federal investigators who then got warrants to examine his social media, laptop and cellphone.
His boastful rhetoric didn’t translate to action: Despite two trips overseas in an attempt to join terrorist groups in Syria, Redzepagic was unsuccessful — in part because he didn’t want to endure a two-day trek through the woods after being turned away at a manned checkpoint in 2015, according to a crimi- nal complaint. In 2016, he tried to enter Syria via Jordan, but was stopped by Jordanian border officials, authorities said.
Redzepagic wanted to join his cousin, who he believes is a member of the al-Nusra Front, a branch of al Qaeda based in Syria, authorities allege.
But he gave conflicting statements, telling authorities he believed fighting in Syria “was different than committing a terrorist attack in the United States and that he did not want to harm ‘innocent’ people,” according to court documents.
Yet Redzepagic couldn’t explain what made a person “innocent,” said the feds, who said he also voiced admiration for late al Qaeda plotter Anwar al-Awlaki.
“Since i got back from turkey from trying to perform Jihad and join Jabhat Al Nusra the cia has been bothering me,” he wrote in one social-media message, adding, “Its annoying but i out smarted them.”
The feds found maps of Syria and Turkey on Redzepagic’s computer and cellphone and a filed labeled “nasheed for jihad.” A nasheed is an “inspirational Islamist hymn,” according to the complaint.
Redzepagic put up a tough-guy front on Facebook, where in 2013 he wrote, “God is my judge, f--k you.”
One time friend Derek Labarbera, 25, admitting doing drugs with Redzepagic in the past.
“Once when we were smoking weed he said, ‘I am a terrorist, I am a terrorists N---a,’ So I thought it was a big joke because he said, ‘n--a’ after it. He was on drugs. I didn’t think he was serious,” said Labarbera, who is now sober.
The case is in its early stages, said Redzepagic’s lawyer, Mildred Whalen, who called Redzepagic “a very troubled young man with a terrible drug problem and possibly a mental problem. He never meant to hurt anyone.”