NY Man Was ISIS Recruiter: Federal Indictment

A man from Rochester, NY, was indicted yesterday on charges of attempting to help three people (two of them FBI informants) travel to Syria to take up arms with ISIS, reports the LA Times. The Justice Department statement further alleges that Mufid Elfgeeh sent $600 to a potential recruit in Yemen, with the funds designed to enable the individual to head to Syria and join ISIS. Elfgeeh was also charged with scheming to kill US troops who had returned from Iraq, going so far as to buy two silenced (but inoperable) pistols from a source working with the FBI. The naturalized US citizen was born in Yemen, WROC reports.

Before his arrest in May, Elfgeeh was already known for his volatile behavior and incendiary Twitter updates, once tweeting that al-Qaeda "said it loud and clear; we are fighting the American invasion and their hegemony over the earth and the people," the Democrat and Chronicle reports. A man who used to work for Elfgeeh at his convenience store called him "a crazy guy [who] should be in prison." He said Elfgeeh would sometimes suddenly start shooting off his guns in the street, CBS New York reports. "We will remain aggressive in identifying and disrupting those who seek to provide support to ISIL and other terrorist groups that are bent on inflicting harm upon Americans," Attorney General Eric Holder says in the statement. (ISIS recruiters are now targeting American women.)