ISIS flag
A student from Queens, New York, was arrested early Saturday for plotting an ISIS-inspired bomb attack in New York. In this photo, a wall painted with the black flag commonly used by Islamic State militants is seen near former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein's palace in Tikrit, on April 1, 2015. Reuters/Thaier Al-Sudani

A Georgia man pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to attempting to support the Islamic State, which he had planned to join before his 2014 arrest, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Leon Nathan Davis, 37, of Augusta, Georgia, was arrested in October 2014 at the Atlanta airport after purchasing a plane ticket to Turkey, with the intention of traveling onto Syria to join the militant group, according to court records.

He faces up to 15 years in jail, according to a Justice Department news release.

Davis had been under investigation by the FBI for a year, officials said. His prosecution comes as the U.S. government ramps up efforts to detain would-be Islamic State fighters.

"These individuals and the threats that they pose to the U.S. or to U.S. interests will be aggressively investigated and presented for federal prosecution," J. Britt Johnson, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Atlanta said in a statement.

A Texas man was charged on Tuesday with conspiracy to provide material support to Islamic State, after plotting on Facebook to join the group, according to federal officials.

In recent weeks, two Southern California men were also arrested and six Somali-American men from Minnesota were charged, all on similar counts.