Alexander Scott Mercurio, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was sentenced on Tuesday to 18 years in prison and lifetime supervised release for attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the US Justice Department said.
“With today’s sentencing, this individual is being held accountable for pledging allegiance to ISIS and planning an attack on US soil,” said Assistant Director Jarod Brown of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division.
Mercurio pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS in October 2025, after law enforcement presented evidence that he had pledged allegiance to ISIS in the days before the planned attack, according to local news outlet The Lewiston Tribune.
Mercurio was not charged with a separate attack-related offense. The criminal complaint filed on April 8, 2024, cited both the attack plan and his financial support for ISIS as probable cause for his arrest, but its only charge is “providing material support or resources to designated foreign terrorist organization.”
According to an FBI affidavit filed with the complaint, Mercurio planned to incapacitate his father with a metal pipe, restrain him with handcuffs, and take his firearms to use in a mass-casualty attack on churches in Coeur d’Alene in the name of ISIS. He also planned to use flame-covered weapons, explosives, knives, and a machete in the attacks.
Investigation began with cryptocurrency network funding ISIS
The FBI became aware of Mercurio during an investigation, launched in 2021, into a fundraising network that uses cryptocurrency exchanges and other financial service platforms to raise funds and launder money to support terrorist organizations in Syria, including ISIS, the affidavit said.
The funds collected by the network were ultimately received by a member of the group dubbed “individual-2” by the FBI, which was monitoring several of the members closely. Individual-2 is known to have been a resident of Gaza and is believed to have died, according to the affidavit.
Mercurio’s communications with the FBI began in 2022, when he was 17. Much of that communication, both online and in person, was with people he believed were fellow ISIS supporters but who were in fact FBI informants. He also corresponded with an FBI online covert employee.
In early 2023, Mercurio created an online repository for pro-ISIS content with the purpose of spreading the doctrine of the Islamic State, court documents show. His plans escalated in early 2024, when he began plotting to attack churches.
“I don’t know how much longer I can take being here,” Mercurio wrote in an online message in late March 2024. “I don’t have the desire to do anything except jihad, a craving for mayhem and terror.”
“The plan is basically this: lie to my dad and say that I’m going to walk alone, walk to a park, send the bayah video, delete all my social media on my phone, then walk to the nearest church. Stop close by the church, equip the weapon(s) and storm the temple, kill as many as possible before they inevitabley (sic) disperse/scatter, then burn the temple to the ground before they flee the scene, then move to the next church, rinse and repeat for all 21+ churches in the town until killed,” he wrote to one of the informants a few days later.
Over the next several days, Mercurio’s plans became more detailed, including talk of possibly killing his father to access the weapons. He also drew up realistic, actionable contingency plans in case his primary course of action failed.
“I don’t want to miss out on jihad in Ramadan,” he said at the time. Ramadan 2024 began on March 10 and ended on April 9.
Final preparations before planned April 7 attack
Mercurio told the informants he had begun buying, or was planning to buy, equipment for the attack, including lighters and propane. One informant even drove him to a hardware store, where he bought the metal pipe he intended to use to attack his father. He also showed the informant a Smith and Wesson knife.
In the week leading up to his planned attack, Mercurio told an informant he planned to donate his savings, about $11,000, to the Islamic State via cryptocurrency.
Days before the planned attack, Mercurio, who was 18 at the time, stood before an ISIS flag, holding a knife and pledging his allegiance to ISIS, the DOJ said. He had chosen April 7 as the date so that the attack would occur before the end of Ramadan.
On April 6, one day before the planned attack, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Mercurio’s residence, seized several pieces of incriminating evidence, and arrested him on probable cause.
“The sentencing of Mercurio today sends the clear message that where individuals intend to pursue acts of terrorism against the United States – whether in Coeur d’Alene, or any other community – they will be brought to justice,” said John C. Shirts, US Attorney for the District of Idaho. “Protecting our communities from terrorist activity is always the number one priority of this office and the Department of Justice.”
