Sajmir Alimehmeti, a 22 year-old Bronx resident, was arrested on Tuesday March 24 and charged with attempting to provide material support to ISIS.
The arrest came through a complaint, filed by federal investigators who have been tracking Alimehmeti a.k.a Abdul Qawii and interacting with him undercover. The complaint was unsealed and made public today
Alimehmeti allegedly “provided advice and assistance to an individual he believed was traveling from New York City to Syria to train and fight with ISIL,” according to the complaint. “Further, since mid-2015, Alimehmeti has made multiple purchases of military-style knives and other military-type equipment, including masks and steel knuckled gloves.”
In 2015 Alimehmeti also made false statements in an application for a passport according to the complaint. Officials in a statement from the United States Department of Justice said that the effort to get a passport shows that Alimehmeti, was allegedly trying to leave America and join ISIS himself.
Alimehmeti had tried to enter the UK on October 24 2014, via Manchester airport. He was denied entry into the country after authorities found camouflage clothing, and nunchaks in his luggage. Two months later in December Alimehmeti again attempted to enter the UK, this time via Heathrow Airport. He was again denied entry but this time due to images of ISIS flags and improvised bombs found on his cellphone and laptop.
“When he couldn’t leave, [Alimehmeti] allegedly seemed more than willing to help others tread the same path to join an insidious and deadly terrorist organization,” FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Diego Rodriguez said in the DOJ statement. “
Cases like this keep the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force and our partners at the NYPD going day in and day out, protecting our city from individuals who plot to help murderers,” Rodriguez said.
Alimehmeti appeared before Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein in Manhattan Federal Court where he was officially charged. If convicted he faces up to 30 years in prison
