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 Mufid Elfgeeh, 32, of Rochester, was sentenced by U.S. District
Judge Elizabeth Wolford of the Western District of New York. The
district's U.S. attorney, William Hochul, called Elfgeeh "one of the
first ISIL recruiters ever captured," using another acronym for the
militant group.
A North Carolina federal judge last May issued the second-longest
sentence for Islamic State-related activity – 20 years and three
months in prison – to Donald Ray Morgan, 44, for trying to provide
material support to Islamic State, and for unlawfully possessing a
firearm.
A Reuters analysis, confirmed by the U.S. Department of Justice,
found they were the two stiffest such sentences yet issued.
Convictions for Islamic State-related activity by Americans have
become more frequent in recent months as more than 80 such cases
brought by U.S. prosecutors since 2013 work their way through
federal courts.
 An Arizona man was convicted by a jury on Thursday of conspiring to
support Islamic State and other terrorism-related charges, while two
men in unrelated cases in Mississippi and Ohio pleaded guilty on
Friday and Wednesday to trying to join or convince others to join
Islamic State. They have not yet been sentenced.
Although Elfgeeh pleaded guilty in December only to trying to
recruit two individuals to join Islamic State, he was also
originally charged with trying to kill U.S. service members and
unlawfully possessing firearms and silencers.
Beginning in 2013, the FBI paid two informants to help investigate
Elfgeeh, according to court records. The informants recorded
conversations in which Elfgeeh talked about wanting to kill members
of the U.S. military and Shi'a Muslims in New York. One of the
informants eventually sold Elfgeeh firearms and ammunition.
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Elfgeeh tried to send the two individuals to Syria to fight on
behalf of Islamic State, buying them a laptop computer, a
high-definition camera, an expedited passport and other travel
documents, according to his plea agreement.
He used Facebook and WhatsApp to activate a network of Islamic State
sympathizers in Turkey, Syria and Yemen who could facilitate their
trip, the plea agreement said.
During the same months, Elfgeeh also helped the alleged commander of
a Syrian rebel battalion contact Islamic State leadership so that
the battalion could join the larger group, prosecutors said.
(Reporting by Julia Harte; Editing by Peter Cooney)
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