USA TODAY

An Islamic cleric once convicted in the United Kingdom for stirring up racial hatred was indicted for using his public persona and his network to recruit and help the Islamic State terror group, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said in a joint statement Friday.

Sheikh Abdullah Faisal, 53, also known as Trevor William Forrest, was charged in New York State Supreme Court with soliciting or providing support for an act of terrorism in the first degree as a crime of terrorism, and other charges.

Faisal was earlier arrested in Kingston, Jamaica, on an extradition warrant by the Counter Terrorism and Organized Crime Branch of the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the Jamaica Gleaner reported.

It was not immediately clear where Faisal was being held Friday or when the indictment happened.

Faisal’s indictment comes after a year-long investigation by the police department Intelligence Bureau and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Counter Terrorism Program.

Faisal helped an Isis sympathizer travel from New York to Syria, aided a recruitment effort for individuals to carry out acts of terrorism for Islamic State and also connected them with other Islamic State supporters.

“Shaikh Faisal has dedicated his life to terror recruitment,” Vance said in the statement. “Through his lectures, website and videos, he incites untold numbers of people around the world to take up the cause of jihad.”

Faisal used his position to groom terrorists who went on to bomb trains, tried to blow up planes and attack Americans, O’Neill said in the joint statement.

“His arrest for his efforts to recruit people for ISIS … should bring an abrupt end to his global outreach in support of terror groups such as al Qaeda and ISIS,” O’Neill said.

Faisal and an undercover NYPD officer began communicating in December 2016 while Faisal was living in St. James, Jamaica, according to court documents.

In his communications with the undercover NYPD officer, Faisal sent Islamic State propaganda and offered to help send the officer to the Middle East to support Islamic State fighters.

Faisal offered to help the undercover officer marry someone in Islamic State to help him travel to the Middle East. Several members of the NYPD Intelligence Bureau then traveled to the Middle East along with the undercover officer. When they arrived, Faisal put them in touch with someone who was to help them connect with Islamic State,

In January 2010, Faisal was deported from Kenya to his native Jamaica, the Gleaner reported.

Faisal was convicted in the United Kingdom in 2003 of stirring up racial hatred and urging his followers to commit murder and served four years in prison.

More:

Trailing terrorists: Exhibit targets FBI's post-9/11 mission

More:

Bronx man arrested at JFK airport, accused of aiding Islamic State

More:

NYPD beefs up security in response to London attack