Police have charged two men with foreign incursion offences following a counter-terrorism raid in Sydney's west this morning.
One of the men, arrested during a traffic stop in Birrong, is an alleged ISIS fighter.
“We will allege that a 24-year-old man from Merrylands travelled to Syria in July 2013 and was with a group known as Jabhat al-Nusra who is an affiliate of al-Qaeda,” police said in a statement today.
The Merrylands man has been charged with one count of incursions into foreign states with the intention of engaging in hostile activities.
The maximum penalty for the offence is 20 years imprisonment.
He is expected to appear before Parramatta Local Court today.
The man was allegedly convinced to join ISIS by convicted terrorism recruiter Hamdi Alqudsi who is serving six years in jail for sending seven men to fight in Syria.
A second male, aged 17, was also arrested, after allegedly attempting to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS in January 2015.
He faces life imprisonment and will front Parramatta Children's Court today.
Police confirmed they had moved as quickly as possible on intel because of the “risk that these people pose” but had been slowed down by the difficulty of accessing evidence in Syria.
“Evidence collection from Syria is extremely difficult,” police said.
“Based on the fact that there’s no competent law enforcement officers working in the region.”
A large police operation followed the arrests, with authorities executing several search warrants at homes in Bass Hill, Merrylands, Hornsby Park and Miller.
The homes are suspected of being linked to terror activity.
The high risk operation was carried out by the joint counter-terrorism team.