A Mississauga man who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges after conspiring to bomb high-traffic areas in New York City in 2016 “has a long history of drug use,” according to newly revealed court documents.

Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, 19, and two others allegedly plotted to conduct bombings and shootings during Ramadan on behalf of Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, the U.S. Justice Department said. The planned locations included Times Square, concert venues and the subway.

The group communicated via online messaging applications with an undercover FBI agent.

While in prison, an inmate gave El Bahnasawy suboxone, a drug often used to treat opioid addictions. El Bahnasawy relapsed after taking it, the documents said. As punishment, a disciplinary officer eliminated his visitation rights for 18 months last November.

The letter also mentions that a psychiatrist visited El Bahnasawy in prison, but details about his addictions and mental health are redacted.

“Mr. El Bahnasawy’s family travelled down from Ontario frequently to visit him (in the prison),” read the letter from New York prosecutors to a district court in the state. “He has no friends outside of his close-knit family.”

Multiple appeals to reverse the visitation ban were rejected before finally being restored after seven months.

The letter also refers to a period where El Bahnasawy was in “inpatient drug treatment.”

A Facebook friend of El Bahnasawy told the Star that they were in a program at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto in 2015.

“He walked out of the program not really changed,” said Mike Duran, who said he attended a youth rehabilitation program with El Bahnasawy.

“The program concentrated on addictions almost exclusively so his mental health problems weren’t really addressed.”

When reached by the Star, CAMH would not confirm or deny his attendance in the program.

Duran said El Bahnasawy was in the program for around two months along with about a dozen people.

“I didn’t see this coming, but I shouldn’t be as surprised as I am,” Duran said. “If we helped those with mental illness more seriously, he wouldn’t be in this mess.”

In the program, patients practised meditation, attended counselling and played basketball, according to Duran. He added that El Bahnasawy was “the funniest guy you’ll ever meet” and got along with the other patients.

Duran said the program was not conducive to helping all the patients, including El Bahnasawy.

“The system, as good as its intentions were, weren’t that helpful,” he said. “We were all around people just like us, so it was actually a very fun place surprisingly, which is kind of counterintuitive.”

Of El Bahnasawy’s terrorism charges, Duran said: “I think he simply found people who truly accepted him. He liked the feeling of being somebody one can depend on.

“He’s jokingly mentioned before how (he) wasn’t friends with many people at his school, implying that peers weren’t exactly the nicest to him.”

El Bahnasawy is a Canadian citizen who was born in Kuwait. His education ended in Grade 11 at a Canadian school, which he did not complete, the court documents show.

The documents also state that El Bahnasawy spent his first five months in prison in “near isolation” before joining the general population in September, and was denied a request to be served halal food.

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On Friday, U.S. officials released details of El Bahnasawy’s guilty plea, which was heard by a New York court last October.

Talha Haroon, a 19-year-old American citizen living in Pakistan, and Russell Salic, a 37-year-old citizen of the Philippines, have also been arrested and are still before the courts.

El Bahnasawy is scheduled to be sentenced in December.

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