The FBI arrested three men on Friday in Kansas and California after they allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS, funneled money to a person they believed was a member of the terrorist organization, and helped fund drone attacks targeting American service members overseas, Fox News Digital reported.
Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, of Leawood, Kansas; Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, of Porterville, California; and Bereen Dzayee, 25, of Lakeside, California, were arrested on a complaint filed in the District of Kansas. The charge: conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
The allegations in the complaint are not abstract. Officials said the three suspects collectively provided more than $2,000 to a person they understood to be an ISIS member. They allegedly communicated through Discord chats, voice calls, and other messaging platforms. And the court documents paint a picture of men who did not merely sympathize with a terrorist cause, they allegedly wanted Americans dead.
What the complaint alleges
Ghafoor allegedly told others it would be "sick" if his name could be written on a drone used in an attack on Americans. Officials said his name was, in fact, written on a projectile of a rocket-propelled grenade that terrorists were planning to use in an overseas attack to kill U.S. service members.
That detail alone should stop any reader cold. But the complaint goes further.
Ghafoor allegedly confessed to having always wanted to kill a female soldier by beheading. He allegedly added: "I wish I could kill 300,000,000 Americans." That figure, of course, roughly matches the entire population of the United States.
Shamsaldeen, meanwhile, allegedly provided financial resources for the specific purpose of purchasing drones to attack and kill U.S. service members deployed overseas. Court documents note he "expressed a desire" to stab and injure a U.S. service member. Dzayee allegedly suggested that drone targets should include U.S. Special Forces.
From February 2025 to about June 2026, officials said, the suspects communicated about several plans to support ISIS, including through provision of personnel, services, and money. The DOJ also said the suspects, along with others, communicated desires to travel outside the United States to fight on behalf of ISIS.
FBI and DOJ respond
FBI Director Kash Patel didn't hold back. He said the suspects allegedly swore allegiance to ISIS, plotted multiple attacks, and targeted U.S. service members.
"This FBI stopped them cold. The success of this op shows once again this FBI's continued record of stopping terrorist attacks before they happen, simply the best way to defend the homeland, and shows we'll stop at nothing to defend Americans from those who seek to do us harm. I want to thank our teams in Kansas City, San Diego, Sacramento, Newark and Richmond, and the Counterterrorism Division for their outstanding efforts on this investigation and commitment to mission."
The investigation spanned multiple FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force offices, Kansas City, San Diego, and Sacramento, with additional assistance from the FBI field offices in Richmond and Newark. That kind of multi-office coordination tells you the scope of what agents were tracking.
The FBI has been busy on multiple fronts. Just recently, the bureau arrested a protester accused of threatening to kill an ICE officer's family at a Newark detention center, another case where federal agents moved swiftly against alleged threats to law enforcement personnel.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche framed the arrests as part of a broader posture against terrorist networks. He stated:
"This administration has put terrorists, cartels, and gangs on notice. Today's arrest of three individuals who allegedly conspired to provide material support to ISIS makes clear our commitment to taking down terrorist networks, anywhere. Thanks to the vigilance of the FBI, their alleged scheme was dismantled and further acts of violence against U.S. service members were prevented."
The threat within our borders
U.S. Attorney Ryan Kriegshauser for the District of Kansas offered perhaps the most sobering assessment. He pointed to a reality that too many Americans, and too many policymakers, prefer to ignore.
"That's because long gone are the days where terrorist threats and attacks are incidents that only take place far away on foreign soil. Unfortunately, we must face the reality of bad actors living within our borders clandestinely conspiring on ways to create fear and havoc. The only way to root out and prevent terrorism plots is through collaboration among all levels of law enforcement and across jurisdictions. Collaboration is which is what facilitated the arrests of these three suspects."
Kriegshauser's point deserves emphasis. These men were not arrested at a border crossing or intercepted overseas. They were living in Leawood, Kansas, and in two California communities, Porterville and Lakeside. Suburbs. Small cities. The kind of places where neighbors assume the worst thing that can happen is a car break-in.
The complaint alleges these suspects used commercially available communication tools, Discord, voice calls, messaging apps, to coordinate their alleged support for a terrorist organization that has killed American soldiers and civilians across the globe. The tools of everyday life, turned toward alleged acts of war against the country that sheltered them.
This case also arrives amid a broader pattern of federal enforcement actions. The FBI recently posted a $200,000 bounty for a former Air Force intelligence agent who allegedly defected to Iran, another national security case that underscores the range of threats the bureau is tracking.
What we don't yet know
The complaint was filed in the District of Kansas, but several details remain unclear. No case number or specific statutes cited in the complaint have been publicly identified. It is not yet known whether the suspects have retained attorneys or entered pleas. No court appearances or detention hearings have been announced publicly.
The timeline raises its own questions. Officials said the alleged conspiracy ran from February 2025 to about June 2026. That span suggests the investigation may have been running for well over a year before Friday's arrests. How the FBI identified and monitored the suspects, and whether any undercover operations were involved, has not been disclosed.
What is clear is that the allegations, if proven, describe men who were not merely talking. They allegedly sent money. They allegedly identified targets. They allegedly celebrated the idea of their names appearing on weapons aimed at American troops. And one of them allegedly expressed a desire to personally harm a service member.
The seriousness of these allegations stands in contrast to the relatively modest dollar figure, more than $2,000 collectively. But in the world of terrorist financing, small sums can buy real weapons. Drones capable of carrying explosives are not expensive. The damage they inflict on deployed troops is.
Meanwhile, the FBI's workload continues to grow across categories. A recent FBI report found 53 officers killed in the line of duty in 2025, with assaults on police reaching a decade high, a grim backdrop for agents and officers already stretched thin.
The case for vigilance
For years, a certain strain of political commentary has treated domestic terrorism investigations with suspicion, questioning whether the FBI was chasing real threats or manufacturing them. This case, with its alleged direct links to overseas ISIS operations and physical weapons, should quiet at least some of that skepticism.
Three young men, two of them just 21 years old, allegedly decided that American soldiers deserved to die and took concrete steps to make it happen. They allegedly pledged allegiance to ISIS and its leader. They allegedly used the financial system and digital platforms to move money toward violence.
The FBI and DOJ say they stopped it. If the allegations hold up in court, the agents who ran this investigation across five field offices and multiple states did exactly what the American public expects of them: they found the threat, tracked it, and shut it down before anyone was killed.
Federal law enforcement has also been active on other fronts, including a recent case involving a former CIA official charged after the FBI seized $40 million in gold bars, cash, and luxury watches from a Virginia home, a reminder that threats to national security come in many forms.
Kriegshauser said the DOJ has encouraged Americans for years to report suspicious activity to law enforcement. That plea is not bureaucratic boilerplate. It is an admission that the government cannot find every plot on its own.
When three men living in American suburbs allegedly plot to put American soldiers' names on kill lists and fund the drones meant to carry out the job, the system has to work. This time, it appears it did. The question is whether anyone in Washington has the will to make sure it keeps working, or whether the next plot slips through while the political class argues about something else.
