Man of Dominican origin sought to join IS: EFE

New York.- A young manfrom the state of New Jersey on Thursday pleaded guilty to several charges oftrying to join the terrorist group Islamic State (IS), EFE reports.

Samuel Rahamin Topaz,21, pleaded guilty in federal court to planning to travel abroad to join the ISand faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a US$250,000 fine at sentencingin November.

The man, arrested inJune along with two others, has offered to cooperate with the investigation againsttwo other detainees, said his lawyer, Ian Hirsch, as quoted by The New YorkTimes.

Topaz, whose father isJewish and his mother Dominican, was introduced by a high school friend to agroup of people with fundamentalist ideas and later planned a trip to Turkey tojoin the Islamic State.

"The crimes hewas convicted posed a threat to the safety of Americans in this country andabroad," the federal prosecutor in New Jersey, Paul Fishman said in astatement.