Washington — A Tajik man living in New York has been arrested and charged with conspiring to provide material support to the ISIS and ISIS-K terrorist groups, according to court documents unsealed Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors claimed that Mansuri Manuchekhri, a Tajik national living illegally in Brooklyn, facilitated the transfer of more than $70,000 to ISIS-affiliated individuals in Turkey and Syria between December 2021 and June 2023, including one person arrested in Turkey for attacking an Istanbul church in 2024.
ISIS-K, or ISIS-Khorasan, is one of the terrorist organization’s most dangerous branches, and it publicly claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to an affidavit filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Manuchekhri was arrested after a close family member reported him to a New York terrorism tip line, warning of potential violence and stating that he had threatened to kill the family member.
Prosecutors claimed that Manuchekhri discussed the payments with someone affiliated with ISIS in Turkey, who informed him that the money would be distributed to current ISIS soldiers and family members of deceased ISIS fighters. They also claimed that Manuchekhri publicly supported previous ISIS attacks on the United States and kept numerous ISIS propaganda videos on his iCloud account.
Manuchekhri frequently trained with firearms, according to prosecutors, and twice sent videos of himself shooting guns to an ISIS contact in Turkey. He allegedly stated that he trains with guns “at least once or twice a week,” and added in another message, “Thank God, I am ready, brother.”
He was also charged with illegal firearm possession, which included an AK-47 and a tactical rifle, as well as immigration fraud. An attorney for Manuchekhri did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The affidavit contained photos allegedly taken from Manuchekhri’s iCloud account, showing him posing with various firearms at shooting ranges:
Prosecutors said Manuchekhri entered the United States on a tourist visa in 2016 and stayed illegally after it expired. According to the affidavit, in March 2017, he paid an American citizen to enter into a sham marriage with him in order to obtain legal status in the United States.
When immigration authorities requested additional documentation about the marriage, Manuchekhri filed for divorce and claimed he was a victim of domestic violence in the hopes that this would help him become a lawful permanent resident through other legal means, according to the government.
Prosecutors claimed that both of Manuchekhri’s immigration petitions were fraudulent, and that they had evidence that he never lived with his wife and that the utility bills submitted as proof that the couple lived together were false.
Manuchekhri appeared before a federal judge on Wednesday and was ordered detained pending the outcome of the proceedings, according to a spokesperson for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
The arrest comes after the US government issued a series of terrorism warnings, with national security officials pointing to a system that is blinking red in the aftermath of Hamas’ attacks on Israel on October 7 and the emergence of terrorism hotspots in Central Asia.
An ongoing FBI investigation into the New Year’s Day truck attack on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street revealed that the attacker posted videos declaring his support for ISIS shortly before the deadly rampage. When the attacker rammed a pickup truck into the popular tourist spot, he killed 14 people and injured dozens more.
Following the attack, the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, and National Counterterrorism Center issued a law enforcement bulletin warning of the threat of violence from lone offenders:
“Official ISIS messaging in the group’s flagship products from 2014 and 2016 called for attackers to use vehicles as weapons in addition to edged weapons and firearms, and pro-ISIS media outlets and the group’s online supporters regularly recirculate or re-purpose those products in
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi was arrested by the FBI last October for allegedly plotting an election day terrorist attack in Oklahoma City. According to federal prosecutors, the Afghan national attempted to sell his family home, relocate his family to another country, and stockpile firearms and ammunition in preparation for an attack in the United States.
Last June, federal agents apprehended eight Tajik men on immigration charges, raising concerns that the men, who entered through the Southwest border and lived in Los Angeles, New York, and Philadelphia, were planning a terrorist attack on US soil, according to multiple US officials.
Naser Almadaoji, an Iraqi-born U.S. citizen, was sentenced to ten years in prison in February 2023 after pleading guilty to providing material support to foreign terrorist organizations, specifically ISIS and IS-K.
