A Wayne, New Jersey man is facing federal charges after authorities say he tried to help the ISIS terror group hide its online communications from law enforcement.
Mohamad Sagha was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. According to a criminal complaint filed on June 8 in federal court, Sagha unknowingly spent months chatting with an FBI informant who he fully believed was an armed ISIS fighter stationed in Syria.
The court documents show the two communicated on a social media app starting in late 2025. During those chats, Sagha allegedly shared photos of a National Guard facility and a Jewish place of worship near his home, suggesting he was contemplating an attack at one of those locations. He also discussed his desire to engage in “jihad,” which the FBI notes is a term extremists use to describe violent action against their enemies.
At one point, Sagha actively tried to leave the country to join the group overseas. The FBI says he left his home in March of 2026, planning to meet another ISIS supporter in Canada before traveling on to Syria or Nigeria. That plan ultimately fell apart, and Sagha ended up returning to his house in New Jersey.
The federal charges largely center on a piece of computer software. On May 31, the undercover informant told Sagha that official ISIS leaders had published an article telling fighters to use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, to mask their locations and avoid getting caught by police.
Sagha immediately offered to help. He bought a VPN subscription meant to cover up to five “brothers” and sent the login details straight to the informant. He even walked the informant through the technical steps of how to set the software up.
To keep up the act, the informant sent a message thanking Sagha for the software. The informant told Sagha that he and the other fighters were “doing dua” for him after “salatu al-maghrib,” meaning they were praying for him after their evening prayers to show their gratitude.
According to the complaint, if Sagha had been talking to an actual terrorist instead of a federal source, he would have handed the group a dangerous tool.
The FBI stated that the software would have enhanced their “ability to communicate and operate online with reduced risk of identification, thereby facilitating their planned acts of terrorism.”
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