A federal grand jury in Rochester, N.Y., has issued a seven-count indictment against a 30-year-old man for helping the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria to recruit Americans.
The Justice Department announced the indictment against Mufid Elfgeeh, a Yemen-born man and naturalized U.S. citizen living in Rochester Tuesday night.
Elfgeeh, who ran a convenience store, tried to provide “material support” to the Islamic State and was plotting to kill members of the U.S. troops coming back from Iraq, the federal indictment alleges.
In addition to the three counts of trying to provide material support to Islamic State, the grand jury charged Elfgeeh with one count of attempted murder of current and former members of the U.S. military, one count of possessing firearms equipped with silencers and two counts of receipt and possessions of unregistered firearm silencers.
The indictment appears to be the first a U.S. court has returned against a U.S. resident for trying to assist the Islamic State from within the United States.
In addition, the FBI has arrested more than half a dozen individuals seeking to travel from the U.S. to Syria to support Islamic State, according to U.S. officials.
“We will remain aggressive in identifying and disrupting those who seek to provide support to ISIL and other terrorist groups that are bent on inflicting harm upon Americans,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement Tuesday night.
Holder said the case shows that U.S. law enforcement and prosecutors are “using all the investigative tools at our disposal to break up these plots before individuals can put their plans into action.”
“We are focused on breaking up these activities on the front end, before supporters of [Islamic State] can make good on plans to travel to the region or recruit sympathizers to this cause,” he said.
Prosecutors are accusing Elfgeeh of attempting to help three individuals to travel to Syria to join the fight for the Islamic State. Two of those individuals were cooperating with the FBI. In addition, he also sent $600 to someone in Yemen to help the person travel to Syria to fight for ISIS.
Elfgeeh allegedly purchased two handguns equipped with firearm silencers and ammunition from a confidential source and planned to use them to kill troops returning from Iraq, as well as Shiite Muslims living near Rochester.
The FBI rendered the handguns inoperable before the source gave them to Elfgeeh, the Justice Department said.
Court documents accuse Elfgeeh of first discussing the idea of shooting members of the U.S. military in December 2013 when he allegedly told one of the sources working with the FBI 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 2013, court documents say Elfgeeh told a source working with the FBI that he needed a handgun and silence, and allegedly later gave the source $1,050 in cash to buy two handguns equipped with silencers and ammunition.
When the source delivered the two handguns equipped with silences and ammunition in a Walmart parking lot on May 31, members of the FBI’s Rochester Joint Terrorism Task Force, arrested him. U.S. authorities are currently holding Elfgeeh at an undisclosed facility.
A criminal complaint against Elfgeeh, which the FBI filed May 31 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York, said he maintained Twitter accounts under at least two aliases and used them to express support for violent jihad and to ask for donations to assist jihadist fighters in Syria.
Between September and December 2013, Elfgeeh praised decisions to prevent fuel and medicine from being sent into certain areas of Syria. He also expressed support for al Qaeda and jihadists as the “true Muslims,” advocated jihad and martyrdom and discussed the increasing numbers of fighters joining Islamic State, among other tweets.
