Three Men Allegedly Funded Drones to Kill U.S. Troops for ISIS. The FBI Arrested Them First.

Early on the morning of June 5, 2026, the FBI arrested three U.S. citizens — one in Kansas City, Kansas, and two in California — on charges that they conspired to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the designated foreign terrorist organization. According to the criminal complaint filed in the District of Kansas, the men collectively handed over more than $2,000 to someone they believed was an ISIS member, money prosecutors say was meant to buy drones and rocket-propelled grenades to kill American servicemembers deployed overseas.

The defendants — Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, of Leawood, Kansas; Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, of Porterville, California; and Bereen Dzayee, 25, of Lakeside, California — allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS and its leader over Discord chats, voice calls, and other messaging platforms between February 2025 and June 2026, prosecutors say. The complaint quotes them discussing beheadings, special-forces targets, and a desire to die for the cause.

All three are charged, not convicted. An indictment is merely an allegation; each is presumed innocent until proven guilty. But the FBI’s account, laid out in a sworn complaint, describes a homegrown plot caught before a single weapon was fired — the kind of case federal officials say increasingly originates inside U.S. borders, not on a distant battlefield.

• $2,000+ — collectively provided to an individual the defendants believed was an ISIS member — funds prosecutors say were meant to buy drones and RPGs · Source: DOJ criminal complaint, District of Kansas
• 20 years — statutory maximum each defendant faces if convicted of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization · Source: 18 U.S.C. § 2339B
• 3 arrests — made June 5, 2026 in Kansas City, Kansas, San Diego, and Sacramento — the plot dismantled before any attack · Source: FBI / DOJ Press Release 26-606

The FBI took the three men into custody in coordinated arrests in Kansas City, Kansas; San Diego; and Sacramento, California, the Justice Department announced on June 5, 2026. Ghafoor, the Kansas defendant, and the two Californians — Shamsaldeen of Porterville and Dzayee of Lakeside — were all charged on a single complaint filed in the District of Kansas with conspiring to provide material support to terrorism.

The investigation was run by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force out of the Kansas City, San Diego, and Sacramento Field Offices, with assistance from offices in Richmond and Newark. According to the complaint, the men exchanged messages in social-media groups promoting violence on behalf of ISIS and, over roughly sixteen months, discussed providing “personnel, services, and money” to the group.

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The language in the sworn complaint is stark. In various messaging exchanges, prosecutors say, Ghafoor exclaimed it would be “sick” if his name could be written on a drone used in an attack on Americans. Dzayee allegedly suggested that the targets of drone strikes should include U.S. Special Forces. Shamsaldeen, the complaint states, expressed a desire to stab and injure a U.S. servicemember.

Ghafoor went further, according to the filing: he said he had always wanted to kill a female soldier by beheading, and added, “I wish I could kill 300,000,000 Americans.” The defendants and others also discussed traveling outside the United States to fight for ISIS, prosecutors say, and in some exchanges expressed a willingness to die on the group’s behalf.

“I wish I could kill 300,000,000 Americans.”

Bisaam Ghafoor, as quoted in the DOJ criminal complaint · District of Kansas

The financial core of the case, prosecutors say, was a scheme to fund weapons for an overseas attack. Shamsaldeen provided money specifically to purchase drones that were, in turn, to be used to attack and kill U.S. servicemembers deployed abroad, according to the complaint. The defendants collectively routed more than $2,000 to a person they believed to be an ISIS operative.

In May 2026, according to reporting on the complaint, Ghafoor met an FBI undercover employee at a Kansas City mosque and handed over a wax-sealed envelope containing $250in cash intended for ISIS. A confidential source later sent him a photograph of a rocket-propelled grenade with Arabic writing on the projectile — writing that translated to Ghafoor’s full name — purportedly to be used in an attack overseas to kill U.S. servicemembers. The complaint alleges the person the defendants thought was an ISIS member was, in fact, working for the FBI.

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The arrests were announced jointly by the Justice Department’s National Security Division, the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas. Officials framed the case as a homegrown threat dismantled by interagency cooperation — and as evidence that terrorism investigations now routinely run through American suburbs, not foreign war zones.

“These subjects allegedly swore allegiance to ISIS, plotted multiple attacks, and even targeted U.S. service members — but this FBI stopped them cold.”

FBI Director Kash Patel · DOJ statement · June 5, 2026

All three men are charged under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, the federal statute that makes it a crime to knowingly provide material support or resources — including money, services, or personnel — to a designated foreign terrorist organization. ISIS has been a designated foreign terrorist organization since 2014. A conviction under the statute carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, or up to life if the death of any person results from the conduct.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Scott Rask and Michelle MacFarlane for the District of Kansas and Trial Attorneys Justin Sher and Jay Rezai of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Eastern and Southern Districts of California. Because the operative the defendants believed they were funding was in fact an FBI source, no weapons reached ISIS and no attack was carried out, according to the complaint.

The defendants are not foreign infiltrators; they are U.S. citizens who, prosecutors allege, radicalized online and tried to turn American money into weapons aimed at American troops. That is the pattern federal officials keep returning to: terrorism cases that begin in encrypted group chats and end with cash changing hands in a parking lot or a mosque, never leaving the country until the weapons would.

U.S. Attorney Kriegshauser used the case to renew a long-standing federal appeal: that ordinary Americans who see suspicious activity report it. “Long gone are the days where terrorist threats and attacks are incidents that only take place far away on foreign soil,” he said. The next stage is the courtroom, where prosecutors will have to prove the allegations in the complaint beyond a reasonable doubt — and where, until they do, the three defendants remain presumed innocent.

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Last updated June 6, 2026