Army Veteran Accused of Helping Fake Islamic State Attack in Kansas City

obert Lorenzo Hester Jr. is accused of attempting to support ISIS. (BOONE COUNTY SHERIFFS
BOONE COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT

An Army veteran has been accused of helping to plan a fake President’s Day terrorist attack against Kansas City’s buses and train stations.

Robert Lorenzo Hester, 26, was charged with attempting to supply material support to an ISIS attack, the New York Daily News reported.

Federal prosecutors say Hester wanted the attack to be “10 times more” devastating than the Boston Marathon bombing.

Hester converted to Islam and also went by other names, such as Mohammed Junaid Al Amrecki.

Undercover FBI agents contacted him after he posted radical views on social media, according to a complaint filed Sunday.

One of his alleged posts last year said ISIS was “created by U.S. And Israeli government,” though he was later accused of turning towards ISIS.

He went from exchanging social media messages with fake ISIS supporters to exchanging encrypted messages with a fake “brother” who he also met in person several times.

The “brother” tried to test Hester’s commitment to the cause by giving him money and threatening his family if he shared any information.

The suspect allegedly acquired duct tape, wire, and roofing nails to make a bomb earlier in February.

The FBI alleges that Hester told one agent that he approved of the idea of rifles being used to make explosives in order kill people.

He was arrested after the fake terrorist drove him to a storage facility.

Hester served less than a year in the Army before his discharge in 2013, and has two small children with a third on the way, the Kansas City Star reported.

His wife declined to comment to the paper on his arrest.

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