US arrests Uzbek national accused of funding ISIS plot from Brooklyn home

Davud Ansariy, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Uzbekistan, was arrested in the country of Georgia and extradited to New York after a decade on the run. Federal authorities allege he headed a Brooklyn cell called the “tea party” that used the Uzbek term “chayxona” to coordinate fundraising for ISIS and the Al-Nusrah Front between 2014 and 2016. The group allegedly plotted to assassinate then-President Barack Obama, bomb Coney Island, and attack police and FBI agents.

Court filings claim Ansariy financed the travel of three individuals to Syria in 2013, all of whom are believed to have been killed, and supported Akhror Saidakhmetov, who threatened to obtain a machine gun and shoot law-enforcement officers. Another associate, Abdulrasul Hasanovich Juraboev, is said to have offered to plant a bomb on Coney Island and expressed a desire to become a martyr by killing the president. At his first court appearance in Brooklyn federal court, Ansariy pleaded not guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of attempting to provide material support to the terrorist groups. He remains detained without bail pending trial.