A Rochester, New York man has been arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to the terror group ISIS, t he New York Times is reporting .
Mufid A. Elfgeeh, 30, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Yemen, had been arrested in June for attempting to purchase two handguns and two silencers, according to The Huffington Post , and had planned to use them to kill U.S. service members returning from Iraq.
On Tuesday, a grand jury issued an indictment against Elfgeeh, accusing him of multiple other charges related to supporting ISIS, including three counts of attempting to provide “material support and resources” to ISIS, one count of attempted murder of U.S. military personnel and multiple firearms charges.
Elfgeeh, who owned a Halal grocery store and restaurant in Rochester, had been working with three men who were willing to go to Syria to “engage in violent jihad” alongside ISIS. At one point, Elfgeeh had sent $600 to an associate in Yemen to help smuggle the men into Syria, and had also given one of the men over $1,000 to buy handguns and silencers. At one point he had allegedly told the men that he wanted to don a body armor vest and “just go around and start shooting.”
The men were undercover FBI informants, and the public was never in danger, according to t he New York Times .
The FBI began investigating Mufid Elfgeeh, according to NBC News , after he posted a series of tweets expressing support for ISIS. In the Twitter account (since removed), he called upon Muslims to donate a third of their money to ISIS and other terror groups.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder issued a statement warning against Americans who may be considering supporting ISIS.
“We will remain aggressive in identifying and disrupting those who seek to provide support to [ISIS] and other terrorist groups that are bent on inflicting harm upon Americans. As this case shows, our agents 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 [ISIS] can make good on plans to travel to the region or recruit sympathizers to this cause.”
Last week, the Obama Administration announced a plan to “degrade, and ultimately destroy, ISIS,” according to this Inquisitr report. This is the first major arrest of an alleged American supporting ISIS since the move was announced.
[Images courtesy of: I Street Research, Daily Mail ]