Uzbek man nabbed for boosting ISIS from NYC home — after spending 10 years on the run

An Uzbekistan national who fled New York City a decade ago after allegedly leading a bloodthirsty crew of wannabe ISIS members dubbed the “tea party” from his Brooklyn home has been hauled back to the city to face justice.

Davud Ansariy, 41, led a group of America-haters whose members allegedly mused about assassinating then-President Barack Obama, bombing Coney Island and shooting police and FBI agents from 2014 to 2016, the feds allege.

Ansariy, a naturalized US citizen who left the Big Apple on a one-way flight to Turkey in May 2016, was nabbed in the country of Georgia Wednesday and flown to JFK Airport in Queens, where a phalanx of FBI and NYPD agents greeted him on the tarmac.

Davud Ansariy, a citizen of Uzbekistan and naturalized citizen of the United States, is charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and the Al-Nusrah Front. FBI New York

He was then held without bail at his first appearance Thursday afternoon in Brooklyn federal court, where he faces a max of 35 years in prison if convicted of multiple terror charges.

“Today, we show the world that this FBI does not forget those who support terrorist organizations and skirt justice by fleeing the country,” said James C. Barnacle Jr., assistant director in charge of the FBI New York’s field office, in a video announcing Ansariy’s arrest.

Ansariy allegedly raised funds between 2014 and 2016 for aspiring members of both ISIS and Al-Nusrah Front as part of a crew that called itself the “tea party,” court papers claim.

The crew used coded language and called itself “chayxona,” an Uzbek word which translates to “tea house” or “tea party,” feds at the US Attorneys Office for the Eastern District detailed.

Ansariy and his pals funded the travel of at least three individuals in 2013 to Syria — where all three are believed to have been killed, prosecutors say.

He also allegedly raised money for convicted coconspirator Akhror Saidakhmetov, who was arrested in 2015 after allegedly pledging allegiance to ISIS and telling an FBI informant that if he couldn’t get travel documents to go to Syria, “I will just buy a machine gun, an AK-47, go out and shoot all police,” court papers say.


Davud Ansariy, center, surrounded by members of the FBI, US Customs and Border Protection, and NYPD.
Ansariy had been on the run for a decade before he was caught in the country of Georgia and extradited to the US. FBI New York

Saidakhmetov allegedly continued: “It is legal in America to carry a gun. We will go and purchase one handgun . . . then go and shoot one police officer. Boom . . . Then, we will take his gun, bullets and a bulletproof vest . . . then we will do the same with a couple of others. Then we will go [to] the FBI headquarters, kill the FBI people.”

Another alleged member of the same crew, Abdulrasul Hasanovich Juraboev, told the FBI that he would “plant a bomb on Coney Island” if ordered to do so by ISIS, court papers allege.

Juraboev also allegedly mused online about becoming a martyr by killing the then president.

“What I’m saying is, to shoot Obama and then get shot ourselves, will it do? That will strike fear in the hearts of infidels,” he allegedly wrote in Uzbek on an ISIS-related website.

Ansariy pleaded not guilty Thursday to one count of conspiring and one count of attempting to
provide material support to the two terror groups. His court-appointed lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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