NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- A 40-year-old Brooklyn man originally from Kosovo was convicted on Wednesday for joining ISIS, recruiting fighters, smuggling recruits into Syria and managing some of the terrorist organizations media efforts.
A Brooklyn federal court convicted Mirsad Kandic of conspiracy to provide material support to the Islamic State and providing material support to ISIS.
Kandic, who was a legal permanent resident of the U.S., tried to join ISIS in 2012, but was on a no-fly list and was unable to leave the U.S. He tried to fly from Toronto, Canada to Istanbul, Turkey in 2013, but again he was prevented from boarding the flight.
Later that year, he took a bus from New York City to Mexico and flew through Panama, Brazil, Portugal, Germany, Kosovo and Turkey to get to Syria.
He started as a fighter for ISIS defending a stronghold on the outskirts of Aleppo, but he was soon directed to go to Turkey to serve as a conduit for recruits and a media manager.
After recruiting fighters, he would obtain false identification papers and help usher them through Turkey into Syria.
He also helped organize the excavation of tunnels under the Turkey-Syria border through which the U.S. believes between 800 and 1,000 fighters were smuggled into Syria.
His smuggling efforts weren’t limited to trafficking humans into Syria. He also operated an online weapons market through which he sold military equipment to ISIS fighters.
Alongside his responsibilities as a recruiter and smuggler, Kandic operated more than 120 Twitter accounts to disseminate ISIS propaganda. By spreading ISIS media, he was able to recruit people online.
He was arrested in Bosnia in 2017 and extradited to the U.S.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
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