An officer with Washington’s Metro Transit Police Department has been arrested for trying assist the Islamic State, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.  

Nicholas Young, 36, who has been with the department since 2003, allegedly bought 22 gift cards for mobile messaging apps to assist the terrorist group overseas and sent the codes to an FBI officer posing as a confidential source that Young had been in contact with, the Justice Department said in a statement.  

Young’s employment with the Metro Transit Police was terminated upon his arrest Wednesday.  

“This investigation began with concerns that were reported by the Metro Transit Police Department, and it reinforces that, as citizens,
we all have a duty to report suspicious activity whenever and wherever it occurs,” Metro Transit Police Chief Ron Pavlik said in a statement.  

Paul J. Wiedefeld, the CEO and general manager of the D.C. rail system, said he had been working with Pavlik and the FBI.  

“Obviously, the allegations in this case are profoundly disturbing,” Wiedefeld said in a statement. “They’re disturbing to me, and they’re disturbing to everyone who wears the uniform.”  

Young, of Fairfax, Virginia, was first interviewed in 2010 in connection to an associate who had been arrested and pled guilty to aiding a foreign terrorist organization, according to the DOJ release.  

Young also traveled to Libya in 2011 and told FBI agents he had met with rebels attempting to overthrow the regime of Moammar Gadhafi and that he had military-style equipment.  

Young’s initial appearance is scheduled for 2 p.m. Wednesday.