By Al-Fassel | 2025-05-24

US authorities recently secured a 30-year prison sentence for an "Islamic State of Iraq and Syria" (ISIS) cryptocurrency financier and disrupted an ISIS-directed plot for a mass shooting on a military base.

The cases highlight an intensified federal campaign to dismantle terrorist networks at home and abroad, security analysts said.

A federal court in the US state of Virginia on May 7 sentenced Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa, 35, to 364 months in prison for channeling more than $185,000 to ISIS through a cryptocurrency scheme.

From October 2019 through October 2022, Chhipa collected money via social media and in-person cash donations, according to court records and evidence presented at trial.

He converted the proceeds into cryptocurrency to fund ISIS fighters in Syria.

Working with an ISIS operative in Syria, Chhipa financed the escape of female ISIS elements from detention camps and routed funds through Türkiye for eventual delivery into Syria, the US Justice Department said May 8.

"This defendant directly financed ISIS in its efforts to commit vile terrorist atrocities against innocent citizens in America and abroad," US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said.

"This severe sentence illustrates that if you fund terrorism, we will prosecute you and put you behind bars for decades."

The sentencing comes amid an expanded US effort to target every link in ISIS's global support chain, including financiers, enablers and would-be attackers.

Thwarted attack plot

On May 14, US authorities arrested Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, 19, for attempting to carry out an ISIS-directed mass shooting at the US Army's Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) facility in Warren, Michigan.

Said conducted drone surveillance of the base, provided armor-piercing ammunition and magazines, trained undercover agents on how to make Molotov cocktails, and mapped out the attack plan, according to the criminal complaint.

He was arrested May 13 after launching a drone near TACOM in support of the attack plan, the Justice Department said.

"Helping ISIS or any other terrorist organization prepare or carry out acts of violence is not only a reprehensible crime -- it is a threat to our entire nation and way of life," US Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. for the Eastern District of Michigan said.

If convicted, Said could face up to 20 years imprisonment on each count.

The message is clear, security analysts said: whether through bank accounts or battlefield plots, any connection to ISIS will be found and crushed.