- Ahmad Khalil Elshazly, 29, of West Haven, Conn., was sentenced Sept. 28 to 92 months in federal prison followed by lifetime supervised release for attempting to provide material support to ISIS. According to court records, the U.S. citizen began expressing a desire to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS in September 2018, repeatedly pledged allegiance to its leaders and operated a pro-ISIS Discord server containing hundreds of extremist propaganda posts.
- On Dec. 14, 2019, Elshazly paid $500 to someone he believed could arrange his clandestine departure from the United States to Turkey, where he expected to obtain assistance reaching ISIS in Syria. He was arrested the following day in Stonington, Conn., after arriving at a location where he believed he would board a boat. He remained detained and pleaded guilty Nov. 30, 2022, to attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization.
- While awaiting sentencing, Elshazly accumulated numerous disciplinary infractions in detention. In August 2025, officers searching his cell discovered a handwritten plan for a coordinated uprising inside the facility. The document included diagrams of the housing unit, instructions for breaching secured areas and tactics for confronting the facility’s emergency response team. U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden imposed the sentence in Connecticut federal court.
ISIS