Wrexham binman who encouraged others to take up jihad jailed for five years

A binman from Wrexham has been jailed for more than five years for terror offences.

Aabid Ali, who was arrested in November last year, had admitted to two counts of possessing documents containing information useful for terrorist purposes and one count of encouraging terrorism.

Married Ali, 49, from Yale Park, Wrexham , published a statement on YouTube encouraging others to take up jihad and terrorism.

Ali – known as Darren Glennon before he converted to Islam – told his wife he wanted to bomb an RAF base, Manchester Crown Court heard.

Judge Stockdale said: “This is extremely serious offending, you are plainly fixated upon extremism and terrorism and you are minded to encourage terrorism in others.”

The court heard anti-terror officials visited Ali’s home in October 2016 following a tip-off and found electronic devices containing extremist literature.

He told them he had converted in jail and said he intended to travel to Syria and expressed support for extremist Anjem Choudary.

Ali had convictions dating back to 1983 and had served six years for robbery and firearms offences when he was 21.

The binman had researched bomb making on the internet, as well as travelling to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He was jailed for five years and four months.

He is also subject to notification provisions for 15 years, and the cash and electronic devices have been forfeited.

Assistant Chief Constable Richard Debicki of North Wales Police said: “North Wales Police has strong links with the Muslim community and members of that community have worked with us to provide support to this investigation.

“Extremism and radicalisation is something that we continue to be constantly vigilant about. We also work hard to ensure that efforts to victimize or commit hate crime against Muslim communities across North Wales are met with a no tolerance approach. It is crucially important that this work continues.

“Nobody is better placed to detect something that is out of place in their communities than the people living in them. To effectively combat the terrorism threat the police, businesses, government and the general public need to work together.”