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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
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Feds Charge New Yorker|With Supporting ISIS

(CN) - A man from Rochester, N.Y., helped the terrorist group ISIS by plotting to shoot and kill members of the U.S. military who had returned from Iraq, a new federal indictment alleges.

Mufid Elfgeeh, 30, was arrested by members of the Rochester Joint Terrorism Task Force and is currently being held in custody, the Justice Department said.

He faces three counts of attempting to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization that the Justice Department calls the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

Elfgeeh is also charged with one count of attempted murder of current and former members of the United States military, one count of possessing firearms equipped with silencers in furtherance of a crime of violence, and two counts of receipt and possession of unregistered firearm silencers.

The indictment returned Tuesday by a federal grand jury accuses Elfgeeh of trying to have three individuals travel to Syria to join ISIS and fight on its behalf. Two of the individuals in question were cooperating with the FBI, the Justice Department said.

As part of his plot to shoot and kill U.S. troops who had returned from Iraq, Elfgeeh allegedly bought two handguns equipped with firearm silencers and ammunition from a confidential source.

Elfgeeh allegedly told one of the confidential sources in December 2013 that he was thinking about getting a gun and ammunition, putting on a bulletproof vest, and "just go[ing] around and start shooting."

In February 2014, Elfgeeh told the other confidential source that he needed a handgun and silencer, according to the indictment. After giving that individual $1,050 in cash to purchase two handguns equipped with silencers and ammunition, the source delivered the order on May 31, prosecutors said.

The Justice Department noted that the FBI had made the handguns inoperable before the confidential source gave them to Elfgeeh.

The material-support charges each carry a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison; the attempted-murder charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; the firearms-possession charge could put Elfgeeh away for life, and the firearm-silencer charges each carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Elfgeeh has spent the last year encouraging the two confidential sources to travel overseas to engage in violent jihad.

While preparing those individuals for the trip, Elfgeeh sent $600 to a third individual in Yemen meant to help that individual travel from Yemen to join up with ISIS in Syria, according to the indictment.

U.S. District Judge Jonathan Feldman ordered an Aug. 6, 2014, application for a search warrant unsealed Tuesday as well.

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