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Friday, April 19, 2024 | Back issues
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Fourth in Alleged ISIL Plot Indicted in Brooklyn

BROOKLYN (CN) - A Brooklyn man bankrolled one of the three alleged U.S. terrorists who planned to join the al-Qaida splinter group ISIL, the federal government said.

In a four-count superseding indictment released Monday, prosecutors say Dilkhayot Kasimov raised $1,600 from several people and planned to give it to a Brooklyn man who planned to travel to Syria and join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The indictment puts Kasimov, 26, among previously indicted alleged co-conspirators Abdurasul Hasonovich Juraboev aka Abdulloh Ibn Hasan, Akhror Saidakhmetov and Abror Habivov.

The men made national headlines when Uncle Sam announced that it had foiled their plans to fly to Syria to join the terror group also known as ISIS.

Feds say Kasimov went to John F. Kennedy International Airport on Feb. 25 to give the money to Saidakhmetov before he boarded a plane to Turkey.

Saidakhmetov was arrested before he left.

Kasimov will be arraigned Wednesday before U.S. District Judge William Kuntz II. He'll get up to 30 years if convicted.

The government began investigating the defendants last year when Juraboev allegedly extolled ISIL's ideologies on an Uzbek-language website.

The probe uncovered that Juraboev and Saidkmetov planned to travel to Syria by way of Istanbul, Turkey, to carry out jihadist attacks with ISIL.

Juraboev was set to leave Brooklyn in March before he was arrested, feds say.

Kasimov raised at least $1,600 in donations from "multiple individuals" for Saidakhmetov to use in Syria, according to the latest indictment.

He also sent out emails encouraging others to kill for ISIL in Syria.

"This defendant is the fourth Brooklyn resident charged as part of the same network of individuals who are alleged to have conspired and attempted to provide material support to ISIL," said U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch, who awaits Senate confirmation to become America's first black female attorney general.

"Terrorist support networks like the one this defendant was involved in offer critical funding, travel logistics, and encouragement to persons seeking to join ISIL and other foreign terrorist organizations," she added.

Authorities called Kasimov the money man in the planned attacks.

"Money is the oxygen that fuels terrorism," New York City Police Chief Bill Bratton said.

Several alleged terrorists have moved through Brooklyn federal court in the last few months.

Last week, two female roommates from Queens, Noelle Valentzas and Asia Siddiqui, were arrested for allegedly planning to build a bomb and fight for ISIL on American soil.

In March, Pakistani national Abid Naseer, 28, was convicted for planning to bomb a busy England pedestrian mall as part of an international terrorism plot. He represented himself.

In January, the government unsealed charges against a pair of Yemeni nationals who allegedly conspired to join al-Qaida.

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