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Aws Mohammed Naser (DOC photo)
A Michigan man was convicted Tuesday in federal court in Detroit of attempting to provide material support to ISIS and possessing a destructive device.
Aws Mohammed Naser, 37, formerly of Westland, was convicted following a five-week trial.
“Defendant Aws Mohammed Naser is a bombmaker and self-avowed ‘son of the Islamic State’—a vicious foreign terrorist organization hell-bent on murdering Americans and destroying our way of life," said interim Detroit U.S. Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr. in a statement after the verdict.
"Naser tried to travel and fight for ISIS overseas but was turned away," Gorgon continued. "So, Naser turned his fight inward on America, gathered drones, and built a bomb in his basement. But our office is dedicated to finding and applying the full force of the law against any terrorist, like Naser, plotting to harm Americans.”
Evidence presented at trial showed that Naser became radicalized and frequently posted extreme Salafi-Jihadist ideological content on his YouTube channel, according to authorities.
He developed a close relationship with Russell Dennison, an aspiring Salafi-Jihadist preacher, and the two jointly traveled to Iraq in early 2012, authorities alleged.
In August 2012, Naser returned to Michigan while Dennison traveled to Syria and joined the foreign terrorist organization Al Nusrah Front, an Islamic State of Iraq–affiliate group that was a precursor to ISIS, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit.
Once back in the U.S., Naser made plans to join Dennison. The two communicated and discussed the terror group’s urgent need for money to acquire firearms. Authorities said that in 2019, Dennison is believed to have been killed while with ISIS in Syria.
Naser attempted to leave the United States for Syria on two occasions. First, in November 2012, he was not permitted to board a plane at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. He tried again in January 2013, purchasing another one-way plane ticket from Chicago O’Hare Airport to Beirut, Lebanon.
Hours before his flight to Lebanon, Naser robbed a Detroit area gas station. After the robbery, he took a bus to Chicago and attempted to board his flight with $2,000. Again, he was blocked by authorities from boarding the plane.
Naser was subsequently convicted of armed robbery and served a three-year prison sentence. He was paroled in 2016.
After being released from prison and unable to travel to join ISIS, Naser focused his attention on how to support ISIS from within the U.S., federal authorities said.
Naser created social media accounts and joined invitation-only ISIS supporters’ chatrooms, groups, and private forums where he obtained and viewed official ISIS media reports, publications, and other jihadi propaganda, authorities alleged.
He solicited and obtained information on explosives and experimented with making explosives and operating drones, authorities said.
In October 2017, the FBI searched Naser’s home and car and recovered a readily assembleable destructive device, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
He faces up to 20 years in prison for attempting to provide material support to ISIS and up to 15 years for possessing a destructive device.
