A New York court sentenced an ISIS supporter, 32 year old man Mufid Elfgeeh, to 22 and a half years in prison on Thursday for trying to recruit fighters to join the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Syria. Elfgeeh owned a pizza shop before he was arrested and convicted of providing material support to the group.
Prosecutors said that rejected his support for ISIS before he was sentenced, showing that the group did not have the dedicated support that it attempts to project.
He was arrested while he tried to buy firearms and silencers from an undercover FBI agents and authorities accused him of wishing to kill American soldiers with the handguns.
“I think that, beyond any doubt, he was interested in not only getting individuals to join ISIS but he himself was interested in and made overt steps to actually engage in violence,” Adam Cohen, the head of the western New York office of the FBI, told Democrat and Chronicle after Elfgeeh’s sentencing.
Elfgeeh is the first American accused of recruiting for ISIS and this is the longest prison sentence given to an American for supporting ISIS