Feds charge Tajik man living in Brooklyn with conspiring to help ISIS
A Tajik national living in New York was arrested and charged with conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State group (ISIS) and the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Wednesday.
Mansuri Manuchekhri, 33, a Tajik national living in Brooklyn, New York, appeared before a federal judge on Wednesday afternoon and was ordered to be detained, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York. Manuchekhri also faces charges of possessing firearms while unlawfully in the U.S. and immigration fraud.
Federal prosecutors accused Manuchekhri of facilitating about $70,000 in payments to ISIS-affiliated individuals in Turkey and Syria, including to one person who was arrested for his alleged involvement in an attack on a church in Istanbul last year. ISIS-K, which U.S. authorities have described as "one of ISIS’s most lethal branches," publicly claimed responsibility for the attack.
"As alleged, the defendant, who was in the United States illegally, not only facilitated tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to ISIS extremists overseas but trained with assault rifles at shooting ranges in the United States and declared his readiness to ISIS," U.S. Attorney John Durham said in a statement.
Manuchekhri faces a maximum sentence of 45 years in prison if convicted, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
'Increasingly radicalized in recent years'
The FBI was first alerted of Manuchekhri in August 2024 after a close family member reported him to the New York State Terrorism Tips Hotline and expressed concern that Manuchekhri might commit acts of violence, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit unsealed Wednesday.
The family member also reported that Manuchekhri had threatened to kill them multiple times, and noted that Manuchekhri had become "increasingly radicalized in recent years" and repeatedly used extremist rhetoric, the affidavit stated.
Between December 2021 and April 2023, Manuchekhri sent a total of about $70,000 to ISIS-connected individuals in Turkey and Syria, according to the affidavit. Manuchekhri also communicated with a person in Turkey who told him the money would be given to ISIS or ISIS-K members and their family members, the affidavit added.
During that period, prosecutors alleged that Manuchekhri also showed support for ISIS by praising past ISIS attacks and had multiple ISIS propaganda videos on his iCloud account.
Prosecutors further alleged that Manuchekhri possessed firearms and made frequent visits to shooting ranges. Manuchekhri's iCloud account contained "numerous pictures and videos" of him using firearms at shooting ranges, according to the affidavit.
In 2022, Manuchekhri sent videos to an ISIS contact in Turkey that showed him firing an assault rifle at a shooting range, the affidavit stated. Prosecutors alleged that in text messages sent with the videos, Manuchekhri told his contact that he trained with the firearms "at least once or twice a week."
'Sham marriage'
Prosecutors said Manuchekhri traveled to the U.S. from Tajikistan in June 2016 on a non-immigrant tourist visa and stayed in the country after his visa expired. In March 2017, he paid a U.S. citizen — an unidentified woman — to enter a "sham marriage" with him so he could obtain legal status, according to the affidavit.
Manuchekhri later filed a petition to become a lawful permanent resident as the woman's spouse, the affidavit stated. But when immigration authorities requested additional supporting evidence for the marriage, Manuchekhri filed for a divorce and petitioned to become a lawful permanent resident by claiming that he was a victim of domestic violence.
Prosecutors alleged that both of Manuchekhri's immigration petitions were fraudulent and that the submitted documents, such as utility bills, had been altered. Further investigation revealed that the woman and Manuchekhri never lived together.
Text messages between Manuchekhri and the woman also showed that Manuchekhri had paid the woman monthly in 2020, according to the affidavit.
Arrest comes amid warnings of extremist violence
Manuchekhri's arrest follows a series of terrorism and extremist violence warnings from national security officials in recent years, including an updated assessment released by the House Committee on Homeland Security after the New Year's Day truck attack in New Orleans.
Federal authorities are still investigating the attack, in which 14 people were killed and dozens more were injured when an Army veteran plowed his truck into crowds of people on Bourbon Street. The FBI previously said it was investigating the incident as "an act of terrorism," and that the suspect was "100% inspired by ISIS."
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security also issued a warning about the potential threat from violent extremists of a "copycat" vehicle attack following the New Orleans incident.
Multiple cases involving Americans who were arrested for attempting to join or support ISIS have also made national headlines. According to George Washington University's Program on Extremism, 246 people were charged in the U.S. with offenses related to ISIS between March 2014 and March 2023.
In November, a New York man was arrested at the JFK International Airport as he prepared to board a flight to Qatar to join ISIS, Paste BN reported. A Kentucky man was convicted last summer for traveling to Syria to train and fight for the terrorist organization.
Last April, an 18-year-old student from Idaho was arrested for planning to attack more than 21 churches on behalf of ISIS.