TerrorismN.Y. terrorist likely lone wolf

Mufid Elfgeeh being transported // Source: aramica.com

When former ice cream shop owner Abad Elfgeeh was arrested in Brooklyn in 2003, FBI operatives were concerned that he may have been involved in a terrorist network. Elfgeeh was convicted of illegally funneling more than $22 million overseas, and despite revelations that he helped prominent Yemeni cleric and former spiritual adviser to Osama Bin Laden, Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad, transfer money, Elfgeeh was not convicted of any terrorism-related charges.

Now, Elfgeeh’s nephew Mufid Elfgeeh, has been charged in federal court in Rochester for plotting to buy weapons to kill American troops returning from war, as well as Shi’ite Muslims. Like his uncle, authorities now question whether Elfgeeh was working on behalf of a terrorist network.

Elfgeeh was arrested on 31 May 2014 as he met with an FBI informant in a Walmart parking lot allegedly to buy a firearm and silencer. Later that evening, authorities searched a convenience store owned by Elfgeeh as well as an attached apartment where he lived. Details on what officials were looking for remain under court seal.

Elfgeeh’s history is one of a young entrepreneur, with family members in Brooklyn, though he kept to himself. “Nobody ever knew him,” said Shakeel Cheema, who heads the Muslim Business Association of Rochester. “He was one of those individuals that maybe his loneliness, or whatever his intentions, was keeping to himself.”

According to Democrat and Chronicle, Elfgeeh sent a text message to a friend, who happened to be a paid FBI informant, following up on a request. The informant told Elfgeeh that he could obtain a 9mm handgun and silencer for $600. The discussion was the result of an investigation by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force that began early in 2013, when another paid informant alerted authorities about Elfgeeh. Multiple FBI recorded conversations between Elfgeeh and the informants revealed anti-American sentiments and discussions about American killings in Yemen.

The FBI waited several weeks before initiating the sales transaction between Elfgeeh and the informant. “The real focus was to find out what you have and if we have a bigger issue here,” said Peter Ahearn, a private security expert who previously headed the FBI’s western New York regional office. “My guess is … you’re dealing with a lone wolf,” Ahearn said. “They’re just as dangerous as somebody getting directions from somebody overseas — probably more dangerous because they’re working on their own” and are harder to discover.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Feldman has set a bail hearing for 16 June 2014, though prosecutors are requesting that Elfgeeh remain jailed pending trial. Elfgeeh’s uncle, Abad Elfgeeh, is currently serving a 15-year sentence at the federal prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania.