Sixty people have been charged with terrorism-related crimes this year, a record number that Justice Department officials attribute to the Islamic State and its ability to attract sympathizers through social media.
"The common connection we’re seeing is — in almost every case — a tie to social media," John Carlin, assistant attorney general for national security, said at a conference last month hosted by the Defense One news website.
His comments were reported Friday by The Washington Post.
Carlin said that more than 55 percent of those charged are under 25 years old, with a third of them being 21 or younger.
"That’s not the same age demographic that we saw with al-Qaida," he told the Atlantic Council in Washington last month, according to the Post.
In addition, the Justice Department has brought more than 15 cases against Islamic State sympathizers similar to the married couple who were gunned down by police after the Dec. 2 San Bernardino shooting rampage that killed 14 people and injured 22 others.
According to the report, the period leading up to the Independence Day Weekend was particularly busy for the FBI and Justice Department.
Authorities detected a "flood of information" signaling ISIS attempts to identify sympathetic people in the U.S. and encourage them to attack, Nicholas Rasmussen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said at the Defense One session.
The hyperactivity was "taxing our resources," Rasmussen said, the Post reports.
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