DENVER (KDVR) — An 18-year-old man was arrested at Denver International Airport on Friday for his alleged connection to a known foreign terrorist group, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado said Monday.

Davin Daniel Meyer was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. He made his first court appearance on Monday, according to the release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.

“According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, Meyer pledged an oath of allegiance to the leader of ISIS and intended to travel to serve as a fighter for ISIS in Iraq,” the release said.

The FBI Denver field office, along with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, is investigating the case.

Arrest warrant: Meyer started following radical ideas in 2021

Someone who knew Meyer contacted the DougCo Sheriff’s Office in June 2022 to alert them of their concern for Meyer’s behavior, an arrest warrant read.

Between then and November, the FBI and the sheriff’s office communicated with the person who contacted them. That person told investigators that Meyer used to be a white supremacist but began practicing Islam, possibly as early as October 2020.

The individual told investigators that Meyer had begun watching radical online content and became even more involved after attending an “eight-month-long camp between 2021 and 2022 that focused on mental health and behavior treatment,” the affidavit said.

The person said Meyer talked about traveling to Syria to fight and was willing to kill himself and others.

“In October 2022, the individual informed the FBI that MEYER had stated that if he
could not go to the Middle East, he planned to get fertilizer and build a bomb in the United States,” the affidavit read.

The document said Meyer had received mental health treatment including residential treatment programs. Staff members reported that Meyer refused medication citing his religious beliefs and that he was diagnosed with “autism spectrum disorder; attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder; adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressed mood; specific learning disorder with impairment in mathematics; and major depressive disorder, recurrent episode, moderate.”

Meyer had issue with local mosque

One investigator believed that Meyer followed the ideology of ISIS and Sunni extremist groups, the affidavit read.

Meyer reached out to a local mosque that allegedly did not allow radical sects to worship there, about his disdain that women are allowed there. The mosque replied to him that he had violated a code of conduct and issued him a warning.

Undercover agents pose as ISIS facilitators

In November 2022, Meyer began communicating with someone he thought was an ISIS facilitator, the document said.

Meyer pledged his allegiance to an ISIS group and sent a video to the undercover agent. After the ISIS leader he pledged to was killed around the beginning of December 2022, he made another video pledging to the new ISIS leader, the document said.

Meyer met with the undercover agent and another agent at different times between December 2022 and June 2023. During the time of communication, they discussed his travel and how he would go to Turkey to meet ISIS members who would take him to Iraq.

He told the agents he needed to get a job in order to save the money for his trip but it was difficult to obtain employment that was in line with his religious beliefs.

Meyer told the agents his mother provided him with money for an apartment and living expenses which would be more than enough to fund his travel and plan to fight for ISIS in Iraq.

The document said Meyer made the reservations but expressed concern for his family and his mother and worried about leaving them.

Meyer followed through with his plan to travel and was arrested trying to board a flight to Turkey on July 14 after he had gone through security. The document said he was on the jet bridge about to board the plane when he was taken into custody.