Mufid Elfgeeh, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Yemen and Rochester, N.Y. pizza shop owner, has admitted that he tried to help recruit members for ISIS in Syria.
Elfgeeh, 31, pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to two counts of attempting to provide material support to ISIS as part of a plea agreement that recommends he serve a sentence of around 22.5 years in prison, according to the Associated Press.
Under the same plea deal, he avoided being charged with plotting to kill Shia Muslims and members of the U.S. military personnel who were returning from the Middle East, possession of illegal firearms and assaulting three sheriff's deputies while in custody.
Elfgeeh became one of the first Islamic State recruiters ever arrested in the U.S. after he was apprehended by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in May 2014. At the time, he was discovered trying to buy two handguns with silencers from an undercover informant working with the FBI, according NBC News.
"Elfgeeh wanted to be a source of support for violent jihad and serve as a facilitator for violent jihadists who wanted to travel overseas and fight," the plea agreement said. "In Elfgeeh's own postings and messages on social media and statements ... Elfgeeh stated that a person who helps or sponsors a fighter to engage in violent jihad obtains the same religious rewards from Allah (God) as the fighter himself."
During the investigation that eventually led to his arrest, court documents indicate that he used Twitter, WhatsApp and 23 different Facebook accounts to seek donations for jihadists in Syria. He bought a laptop and camera for two recruits for a planned 2014 trip and even paid $240 to help one of them get a birth certificate and passport. It turns out that two of the recruits were FBI informants.
Lastly, to further facilitate their trip to Syria, Elfgeeh sent $600 to a third person in Yemen, according to The Canada Journal.
Elfgeeh will be sentenced on March 17, 2016.
