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By his own lawyers’ account, Abdul El Bahnasawy led a sheltered existence in Mississauga, Ont.

Suffering from “serious” mental-health problems, the teenager’s world revolved around his parents, his older sister and the people he met while being treated for an opioid addiction. In high school, he never got past Grade 11.

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“He has no friends outside of his close-knit family,” said the attorneys last year.

But for months online, El Bahnasawy led a much different life, claiming allegiance to the Islamic State and concocting an elaborate and bloody plot to attack the subway system, concerts and other public places in New York City.

It was a plan – sketched out in part on subway maps – he hoped would rival 9/11 in scope and at least bring him a glorious death “to please Allah.”

What El Bahnasawy did not know is that one of the co–conspirators he plotted with by internet was actually an undercover FBI agent, not a fellow ISIL adherent.