A Tajikstan native in the United States illegally, who apparently loves firearms, has been accused of supporting ISIS.
Mansuri Manuchekhri, a truck driver residing in Brooklyn, allegedly funneled $70,000 to individuals linked to the terrorist group between December 2021 and April 2023, the New York Post reported Wednesday.
The suspect apparently believed the funds were going to help relatives of dead ISIS fighters.
One of the ISIS-affiliated individuals was later arrested for allegedly being involved in a 2024 terrorist attack on a church in Istanbul, for which the group known as ISIS-K claimed responsibility, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York said in its announcement Wednesday, noting the suspect in the recent case had been arrested and charged.
“Manuchekhri expressed his support for ISIS to others by praising past ISIS attacks in the United States and by collecting jihadi propaganda videos promoting violence and martyrdom,” the press release said.
Manuchekhri had reportedly boasted to his friends that he spent time at a New Jersey shooting range for “training” a few times a week.
Federal agents located a photo of the suspect holding a pair of AK-47s:
Federal officials cited a complaint and said “Manuchekhri traveled to the United States from Tajikistan in June 2016 on a non-immigrant tourist visa and remained in the country after his visa expired in December 2016. In March 2017, Manuchekhri paid an American citizen to enter into a sham marriage with him so that he could obtain legal status in the United States. However, he failed to provide certain supporting documentation that was requested by the government and his petition was never granted.”
According to the Post, the “sham marriage” involved a Bronx stripper. However, the suspect’s ex-wife reportedly informed authorities the man was likely to commit violence and told them about the “sham marriage.”
Manuchekhri was charged with conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) and to the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K), possessing firearms while he was illegally in the United States, and immigration fraud.
In a statement regarding the case, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “Under no circumstances will my Department of Justice tolerate terrorism. We stand ready to find, arrest, and prosecute those who seek to harm American citizens with the full force of the law. I stand with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners who work to keep Americans safe and evil off our streets.”
In January, President Donald Trump’s administration arrested 538 illegal aliens in one day and among them was a suspected terrorist, Breitbart News reported.
