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Virginia woman charged in connection to ISIS recruitment

19 November 2014 04:35 (UTC +04:00)

Heather Coffman, 29, of Henrico County, is charged with making a materially false statement or representation regarding an offense involving international and domestic terrorism. Authorities said they built their case against Coffman with information from a series of undercover interviews and inflammatory social media posts.

Coffman first caught the attention of the FBI through her Facebook activity, according to a criminal complaint filed to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The complaint details many of Coffman's controversial Facebook posts and interactions.

Investigators say that on June 23, using the name Ubeida Ametova (one of her many online aliases), Coffman listed her "work and education" on her Facebook account as "jihad for Allah's sake." Per the charges, she posted an image with the captions "We are all ISIS, Islamic State of Iraq and Sham" and also posted a picture of armed men and the black flag of ISIS, emblazoned with the words "Virtues of the Mujahideen."

Authorities say that on July 8, using a second Facebook account, Coffman reposted the same images from her first account in addition to a picture of the ISIS flag surrounded by praying men armed with AK-47s.