Delaware car salesman who made outlandish attempt to fight ISIS on Twitter and was thrown in prison for 14 months for being 'mentally ill' is finally cleared

A car dealer from Delaware was held in federal prison for 14 months after he became convinced his correspondence with online jihadists could help free hostages held by ISIS.

Toby Lopez, 42, lived an ordinary life as a Toyota salesman until he learned from CNN one day that members of the Islamic State were active on Twitter, the NYTimes reported. 

Curious as to what they could be saying, he began exchanging lengthy messages and Skype calls with a man he believed was a military commander in ISIS, and roped in FBI agents thinking he was privy to terrorism intelligence.

But the military commander turned out to be a Kurdish immigrant living in Sweden who wanted to cash in on ransom money, and Lopez was deemed unfit to stand trial for more than a year by prison psychologists who thought he was suffering from delusions of grandeur. 

He was finally released late last month and charges against him were dropped on Friday.

Toby Lopez (left), a car salesman in Delaware, thought he was negotiating for the release of hostages with Omar al-Shishani (right), an ISIS commander in Syria. It turned out the Twitter account was run by an impostor 

Lopez started off insulting ISIS supporters on Twitter, but his interest soon escalated until he was so distracted by online messages that he eventually quit his job.  

He began debating with jihadists late into the night, throwing in Arabic phrases he picked up or quoting scriptures from the Quran to dispute their ideas. 

He would also exchange Skype calls with a man he believed was Omar al-Shishani, a Chechan ISIS commander who was called 'one of the most influential military leaders of the Syrian opposition forces' by the BBC.

As videos of beheaded journalists were released, Lopez became convinced his conversations with al-Shishani could help save hostages.

His efforts zoned in on 26-year-old Kayla Mueller, an American aid worker who was kidnapped by jihadis in August 2013 following a short visit to Syria from her base over the border in Turkey.

It is believed that during her brief visit to a Doctors Without Borders-run hospital in Aleppo, a spy alerted local Islamist militants to her presence and she and her Syrian photographer boyfriend Omar Alkhani were ambushed by gunmen shortly afterwards. 

Lopez contacted members of the press as well as FBI agents, but grew angry when they suggested his source was fake.

According to the NYTimes, Lopez was in contact with an impostor who had previously nabbed an interview with an Australian radio station pretending to be the ISIS leader. 

He later admitted he was a Kurdish immigrant, and had asked Lopez to transport ransom money to Sweden.

His efforts zoned in on 26-year-old Kayla Mueller (pictured), an American aid worker who was kidnapped by jihadis in August 2013. After she was declared dead in February 2015, Lopez sent a high volume of emails to US counterterrorism agent Jeffrey Reising, which were interpreted as threats

In one email sent to Jeffrey A. Reising, a counterterrorism agent based in Delaware, Lopez wrote: 'I want to bring her home alive. I know I can do it and I will look the PRESIDENT in his eyes and tell him exactly that...'

When Meuller was reportedly killed in an airstrike just two days after the message, Lopez's messages to Reising became increasingly harsh.

Lopez bombarded Reising with 80 messages in 10 days, writing, 'Just remember whatever ends up happening to you...You deserved it,' the NYTimes reported.

He was arrested on February 11, 2015 for transmitting a 'threat to injure' Reising.

Lopez was transferred to several different prison facilities in Pennsylvania, New York, Oklahoma and North Carolina, and was never tried because psychologists thought he was mentally ill.

A third assessment by a psychologist who had access to records of his online messages finally deemed Lopez competent, and he was released on bail on March 24, 2016. 

The charges against him were dropped on Friday.

Lopez was thought to be mentally ill while he was imprisoned for 14 months. A third assessment by a psychologist who was the first to review records of his online messages found him competent. He was released in late March and charges were dropped on Friday

Drexel University psychologist Kirk Heilbrun found Lopez competent, but wrote he would have deemed Lopez' account 'grandiose and delusional' had he not seen the documents.

Lopez told the Times: 'Nobody deserves to get dragged through what I got dragged through, along with my family. It’s sad that when someone does something with righteous intentions and gets treated by the government this way.'

Kayla Mueller was announced dead in February 2015 after a Jordanian air raid, but her death was never verified by the US. Her family believe she was murdered by ISIS.

Omar al-Shishani was declared dead by US officials after he was injured in an airstrike in March 2016.  

He was transferred to federal prisons in Pennsylvania, New York, Oklahoma and North Carolina (pictured, the correctional facility in Butner, North Carolina, where Lopez was held the longest)