US officials on Friday arrested a 25-year-old man from suburban New York and charged him in a five-count indictment with attempting to travel to Yemen to join al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Court papers unsealed on Friday charged the man, Marcos Alonso Zea, with trying to join and provide aid to the group, which the United States regards as one of the most active wings of the militant network.
Zea planned to join al Qaeda operations outside the United States that would result in murder, prosecutors charged. He is due in court in Central Islip, New York, at 2 pm ET (1800 GMT). The United States also charged Zea with attempting to give money to al Qaeda affiliates, and trying to destroy his computers when he learned that he was under investigation. Investigators were able retrieve documents including issues of al Qaeda's "Inspire" magazine from his hard drives. They also recovered a semi-automatic rifle that Zea had given to an acquaintance before leaving for his trip to Yemen, prosecutors said.