A 22-year-old U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Polk has been charged with making threats to kill Jews at a synagogue and could face up to five years in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana.

Federal prosecutors identified the suspect as Jakob Marcoulier, who was taken into custody and formally charged on April 23. Authorities say the alleged threats were made on the messaging platform Discord.

“Threats against synagogues and Jewish Americans are threats to the religious freedom promised to every single one of us,” stated Zachary Keller. “This office and our law enforcement partners are committed to protecting those freedoms.”

The FBI’s New Orleans field office became aware of the situation after receiving a tip from a concerned individual. Jonathan Tapp said both the bureau and the U.S. Army responded quickly once the report was made.

“This is a perfect example of how the public is law enforcement’s greatest partner,” Tapp stated.

According to the Justice Department, the initial report came in February, when an anonymous tipster alerted authorities that a Discord user known as “El Bostino” had issued threats directed at synagogues.

Investigators later obtained audio recordings from Discord in which the individual—allegedly Marcoulier—made explicit statements outlining a planned attack.

“FBI secured recorded audio from Discord in which the individual, later determined to be Marcoulier, made these threats, stating among other things that ‘after this deployment, if the Jews still have reign over our government, I am going to walk into a synagogue with my AK, with a 75-round drum mag, and all of my extra mags, with my level four plates, and my haka helmet that’s three plus, and I am going to kill every single Jew I know inside of that synagogue, and that’s my goal in life.”

Authorities say the suspect continued with additional remarks expressing intent to carry out violence.

The suspect allegedly added that “you guys will never do anything about but I will. I just have to finish this. I have to go back overseas and do what I have to do and then you’ll see me in the news. I promise you.” He is accused of also saying that “you guys don’t want to do anything for the [profanity] cause when it actually needs to happen” and “I’ll still kill these [profanity] in order to make sure the white youth is [profanity] secured.”’

{Matzav.com}