(Photo courtesy of Arizona Department of Corrections)

Michelle Bastian

On Wednesday, an Arizona woman named Michelle Bastian was booked on suspicion of terrorism after police say she mailed bomb-making instructions from Al-Qaida and the Islamic State to the prison where her husband is currently incarcerated. Court documents show Bastian’s husband converted to Islam and had become radicalized. Mia Garcia, spokeswoman for Attorney General Mark Brnovich, says this will be the second time Brnovich will prosecute a state level terror charge.
 
"Arizona has a strict conspiracy to commit terrorism statute. It’s against the law in Arizona to conspire with anyone to commit a terrorist act," Garcia said.
 
Bastion’s arrest came two days after Brnovich announced Mahim Khan, the 18-year-old who was accused of plotting a terror attack at a motor-vehicle office in Mesa, pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. He faces 7 to 14 years in prison.
 
"Our goal is to stop these homegrown terror plots before innocent lives are lost and this is a new initiative by the FBI in our office and these terror attacks are a huge concern in our community and we are now moving to prosecute some of these cases in state court," Garcia said.
 
That kind of collaboration should become more common, according to Matt Mayer. He’s a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and writes about the relationship between federal and state and local governments when it comes to counterterrorism and homeland security.