Several men accused of helping the Islamic State terrorist group by plotting to kill Shia Muslims and US military members pleaded not guilty on Thursday, Sept. 18 in Rochester, NY.
Mufid Elfgeeh, 30, entered the plea to three counts of attempting to provide resources, materials, and new recruits to Islamic State extremists in Syria and Iraq.
Elfgeeh, a New York food store owner originally from Yemen, was charged by prosecutors Tuesday after close investigation from undercover FBI informants about his suspicious activity. The indictment reports that Elfgeeh tried to arrange for three individuals to travel to Syria to join ISIS in 2013 and early 2014. Two of those people, authorities claim, were actually the informants.
Elfgeeh was arrested in May after trying to buy two handguns and two silencers from another FBI informant, as part of a plan to kill retired US Army members and Shiites in the Rochester area. Prosecutors say he tried to persuade the informant, along with another FBI operative and someone in Yemen, to go to Syria and “fight on behalf of ISIS,” according to the report.
The firearms charges were made public in June, and the recruitment charges were contained in a grand jury indictment handed over on Tuesday.
After a year-long investigation, prosecutors discovered tweets from Elfgeeh’s computer linked to alias Twitter accounts expressing al-Qaeda support, violent holy war and Sunni insurgent groups overseas. In a series of tweets he posted over the months, Elfgeeh expressed support for ISIS and urged people to donate to similar terror groups. One message encourages people to donate a third of their salary to jihadists in Syria.
Elfgeeh, a naturalized US citizen, also had trouble getting a visa to enter Turkey, according to court documents.
The anonymous informants who handed over information had been paid by the FBI, and were also compensated on individual immigration and drug offense matters.
Elfgeeh’s lawyer in the federal defender’s office provided no comment.
(With reports from NBC News and the Associated Press)
