A NY pizza shop owner admitted Thursday he tried to recruit fighters for the Islamic State group in Syria.
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A Rochester has plead guilty to attempting to support a foreign terrorist group.
Mufid Elfgeeh, 30, was also charged with attempting to kill members of the USA military and possessing illegal firearms.
Mufid A. Elfgeeh, 31, of Rochester, New York entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Wolford of the Western District of New York, it said in a statement. The naturalized USA citizen, born in Yemen, was accused of trying to recruit three people to join ISIS in the Middle East. Two of his targets were Federal Bureau of Investigation informants.
He is scheduled for sentencing March 17 in federal court. In addition, Elfgeeh paid more than $240 for Individual B to obtain a copy of his birth certificate, passport photographs and an expedited passport. Officials say Elfgeeh took a number of steps to prepare the two sources for a trip to Syria.
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While running his Rochester pizza shop, Elfgeeh used Twitter, WhatsApp and 23 Facebook accounts to seek donations and declare his support for violent jihad and allegiance to the Islamic State and its leaders, court documents said.
