The US has sentenced an Albanian national to 16 years in jail for attempting to join terrorist groups and providing material support for them.

The ruling for 31-year-old Agron Hasbajrami was announced by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn on Thursday.

In 2008, Hasbajrami traveled to the United States and became a legal resident in Brooklyn, New York.

In 2011, he was arrested before he could travel to Turkey and then to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan (the FATA) in order to join an insurgent group.

In June 2015, Hasbajrami pleaded guilty to conspiring to support terrorists.

“This case, like many others before it, has shown that the application of lawful surveillance can allow the United States government to detect and neutralize a terrorist in the United States,” said Acting US Attorney Kelly T. Currie.

“The sentence imposed today leaves no question as to the defendant’s role in a very serious offense and helps ensure that he will no longer pose a threat to the United States and our allies.”

“He used technology to propagate terrorist messages and create a plan to attack US interests,” Currie said.

The defendant sent over $1,000 in multiple wire transfers abroad in support for terrorist activities conducted in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He also contacted an individual in Pakistan who said he was a terrorist and worked for a group that had murdered American soldiers and kidnapped Westerners.