Mufid Elfgeeh, aged 32, hailing from Rochester New York, was sentenced to 22 and a half years in prison for attempting to recruit new members for ISIS. This case is receiving extra attention due to the length of the sentencing; it is the longest ever to be given to an American supporter of ISIS.
U.S. attorney William Hochul, who represented the district where Elfgeeh was sentenced, has described Mufid Elfgeeh as one of the first American recruiters captured, putting the length of his sentencing into a better light.
Prior to this case, the longest sentencing doled out to an ISIS supporting American was 20 years and three months, given out last may in North Carolina.
To gather proof on Elfgeeh, the FBI had informants record conversations with him, in which he talked about his desire to kill those in the United States military, as well as Shi’a Muslims in New York. One of these informants also sold Mufid Elfgeeh firearms.
Mufid Elfgeeh attempted to send these two informants to Syria in the name of ISIS, and facilitated this by acquiring them various items, including cameras and travel documents. He arranged this through social media networks such as Facebook to communicate with supporters in the Middle East.
