The Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist group plotted to infiltrate the US through the Mexican border and attack its “financial system,” according to a Canadian IS fighter taken prisoner in Syria.

Canadian-Trinidadian IS fighter Abu Henricki al Canadi was tapped to carry out “financial attacks to cripple the [US] economy,” he told researchers with the International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism (ICSVE). The group planned to fly him and other Trinidadians to Puerto Rico; from there, they’d take a boat to Mexico and be smuggled in through the border, Canadi said.

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“All I could think of was a bombing mission,” Canadi told the researchers, though the exact details of the plot, including where he would go once across the border, were never revealed to him. IS’ connection – the “mastermind” of the plan – was located in New Jersey and reportedly had a “system” for getting fake passports and identity papers.

“I would like to think I foiled the plan by not being part of it,” Canadi said, telling the researchers he was imprisoned and tortured in the group’s Manbij prison when he balked at carrying out the plot. He said other Trinidadians who’d been similarly approached by IS’ intelligence agency also refused. Canadi became chronically ill after he was released from prison and finally turned himself in to American forces in March during IS’ last stand in Baghouz. He has been imprisoned in Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) controlled Rojava ever since and claims to have repented of his support for the group.

“We often hear about terrorists trying to enter the southern border in political debate, but I rarely have come across a real case,” ICSVE director Anne Speckhard told Fox News. While IS has used returning fighters to organize attacks in Europe, the logistical difficulties involved in sending terrorists to North America are much greater, but it would be logical to use fighters not known to their governments as IS members.

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President Donald Trump and other immigration ‘hawks’ have occasionally claimed IS terrorists could be lurking among the Central American migrants streaming northward across the Mexican border in ever-increasing numbers, but Canadi’s tale is the first report that confirms the narrative. Last month, Customs and Border Patrol apprehended 144,278 illegal immigrants at the Mexican border.

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