OKLAHOMA CITY – Two Afghan nationals living in Oklahoma were charged in federal court here with conspiring to receive weapons and ammunition to stage a violent attack in the United States on Election Day last November “in the name of, and on behalf of, ISIS…” Abdullah Haji Zada, 18, a native and citizen of Afghanistan and a U.S. lawful permanent resident who entered the U.S. on a special immigrant visa in 2018, pleaded guilty April 12. At the time of his arrest, Zada was living in a house in Moore with his parents and five siblings aged 6 to 21.
His alleged co-conspirator, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, is awaiting trial. Tawhedi lived in an apartment in Oklahoma City with his wife, who is Zada’s sister, and their infant child.
Court documents reflect that Zada and Tawhedi bought two AK-47 rifles that cost $1,200 apiece plus 500 rounds of ammunition, knowing that the weapons would be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the U.S. on Election Day in November 2024 on behalf the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), a designated foreign terrorist organization.
An FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit that Tawhedi said he and Zada intended to target “large gatherings of people” and “expected to be martyred” during the attack. A specific target is not mentioned in court records.
Both suspects were arrested last October.
Armed with a search warrant, the FBI seized Tawhedi’s iPhone and found that he “accessed, viewed, and saved ISIS propaganda, including an image depicting a headless Statue of Liberty and an incriminating video that was recorded in Oklahoma City on July 20, 2024.
An analysis and a summary translation showed Tawhedi, in the presence of his daughter and Zada’s younger brother, “reading from an electronic device a text that describes the rewards a martyr receives in the afterlife:” martyrs “will be exempted from the sufferings of the grave, placed in heaven, get married to 72 virgins, and receive a crown full of jewels.”
ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) is a militant jihadist organization that emerged as an offshoot of al-Qaeda in 2014. It quickly took control of large parts of Iraq and Syria, declaring the creation of a caliphate and imposing strict Islamic rule. The group is virulently anti-democracy and sectarian, and has conducted and inspired terrorist attacks worldwide.
In March 2024 Tawhedi completed two cryptocurrency transactions that transferred approximately $540 to a Syria-based “charity” that “engaged in an online fundraising campaign benefitting ISIS members and their supporters,” the FBI agent wrote.
In a Telegram application installed on his iPhone, Tawhedi sent a message last September to someone identified as Abdul Malik – an individual who “facilitated recruitment, training, and indoctrination of persons who expressed interest in terrorist activity” – and told him they sold the house in Moore for $185,000. “We’ll receive the money by the 15th of October” and afterward “we will begin our duty … we will get ready for the election day.”
Tawhedi indicated at least some of those funds would be used to repatriate eight family members – his mother-in-law, his wife and daughter, three sisters-in-law and two brothers- in-law – back to Afghanistan. Tawhedi “believed they could live according to pure Islam” there, the FBI investigator wrote in his affidavit.
The family’s one-way flight to Kabul was scheduled to depart from Dallas on Oct. 17, 2024. However, Tawhedi and Zada were arrested on Oct. 7, 2024, moments after they purchased the AK-47 rifles and ammunition, the FBI agent related.
It is unclear whether the family members subsequently were allowed to leave the U.S. for Afghanistan.
Zada, who was 17 at the time of his arrest, entered his guilty plea as an adult and will be sentenced as an adult, Oklahoma Western District U.S. Attorney Robert J. Troester said. At sentencing, Zada faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
As part of the plea agreement, Zada will be deported from the United States to Afghanistan after his term of incarceration. Zada acknowledged that the order of removal would terminate his lawful permanent resident status.
Zada also waived his right to appeal the conviction except in limited circumstances or seek any form of appeal or relief from his removal and deportation, including but not limited to, seeking asylum.
Tawhedi is awaiting trial for conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, and receiving, attempting to receive, or conspiring to receive a firearm to be used to commit a felony or a federal crime of terrorism, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
The case was investigated by the FBI Oklahoma City Field Office’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, U.S. Marshals Service, Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the Edmond Police Department, the Moore and Oklahoma City police departments, the police department of Oklahoma City Community College and of Oklahoma City University.