BEAVERCREEK, Ohio — A Beavercreek, Ohio man, Naser Almadaoji, was sentenced to 120 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release by a federal court for attempting to join the ISIS terrorist group. Almadaoji, 23, an Iraqi-born US citizen, was arrested by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force at John Glenn International Airport in 2018 while trying to travel to Afghanistan to join ISIS or ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K).
Almadaoji pleaded guilty in November 2021, just before his jury trial was scheduled to begin. He admitted to attempting to provide material support – himself, as personnel – to foreign terrorist organizations, namely ISIS and ISIS-K. The defendant intended to travel to Astana, Kazakhstan, where he planned to be smuggled into Afghanistan so that he could join and receive military training from ISIS-K.
According to court documents, Almadaoji purchased a plane ticket for travel in October 2018 and was arrested by FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force officers after checking in and obtaining his boarding pass. The defendant had also traveled to Egypt and Jordan in 2018 for the purpose of joining ISIS’s affiliate in the Sinai but was unsuccessful.
In addition to attempting to join ISIS, Almadaoji recorded and sent a video of himself pledging allegiance to the leader of ISIS and also translated a purported ISIS document from Arabic to English. He also proposed a plot to start a conflict in the US between the federal government and anti-government militias and asked for a guide on how to make a car bomb.
U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker stated, “Almadaoji was not just an ideological supporter of terrorism, he attempted to train to fight, assassinate, kidnap and kill, in hopes of employing violence in America on behalf of ISIS.”
FBI Cincinnati Special Agent in Charge J. William Rivers said, “The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, and our partners, will continue to work to protect the community from those determined to support terrorism and plan violent attacks.”