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Three Brooklyn Men Arrested By FBI For Alleged Plans To Join ISIS

by Sean Levinson

Three Brooklyn men have been arrested for allegedly trying to travel overseas and join the Islamic State.

For approximately 18 months, FBI agents had been monitoring the communication of Abdurasul Hasanofvich Juraboev, 24, Akhror Saidakhmetov, 19, and Abror Habibov, 30.

The older suspects are citizens of Uzbekistan while the youngest holds citizenship in Kazakhstan.

Police claim the trio planned on launching terror attacks in New York should they fail to reach the Islamic State in Syria.

In the past six months, Saidakhmetov reportedly wrote on an Uzbek-language website that he wanted to purchase machine guns to kill police officers and FBI agents if he was forced to remain in New York.

He had also allegedly requested help online to obtain weapons and revealed his murderous intentions to an FBI informant in a recorded conversation.

Juraboev reportedly wrote on the same site in August of 2014 that he would kill President Obama and set off a bomb in Coney Island upon commands from the Islamic State.

Habibov operated a network that raised money to help Saidakhmetov join the militant group. He runs mall kiosks that sell kitchenware and fixes cell phones in numerous states.

Saidakhemetov worked for him in these kiosks last fall and winter.

The three have been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to a terror group and could go to jail for up to 15 years if convicted.

Saidakhmetov was arrested earlier today at John F Kennedy International Airport right as he was about to get on a plane to Istanbul, Turkey, which borders Syria.

He told his mother about his plans last week when he called her about retrieving his passport.

He said,

If a person has a chance to join Islamic State and does not go there, on judgment day he will be asked why, and that it is a sin to live in the land of infidels.

Juraboev had purchased a ticket to Istanbul for a flight that would have left March 29.

The location of his arrest is not clear.

Habibov will appear in court in Florida, so it is presumed he was arrested there.

The other two will appear in a Brooklyn court on Tuesday.

Citations: 3 Brooklyn Men Who Allegedly Plotted to Travel to Syria to Join ISIS (NBC New York)