Overview
- Aws Mohammed Naser, 38, was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in federal prison after a jury conviction for attempting to provide material support to ISIS and for being a felon in possession of a destructive device.
- A five-week trial in 2025 ended with a unanimous verdict after about six hours of deliberation, finding he twice sought to provide personnel and services to the group while knowing its terror designation.
- Evidence showed he was radicalized in his early 20s, traveled with associate Russell Dennison to Iraq in 2012, then twice tried to reach Syria in 2012–2013 but was denied boarding, with the second attempt following a gas station robbery that led to a separate prison term.
- After his 2016 release, he pledged allegiance online, learned bomb-making methods, and, during an October 2017 search, agents found a basement lab with drones and a ready-to-assemble device using TATP, an explosive known for being highly unstable.
- Justice Department and FBI officials said the Joint Terrorism Task Force disrupted an operational threat and emphasized that U.S. law bars providing people or services to designated terror groups, a warning they cast as deterrence.