Two Chicago area residents are among six people charged in a sweeping indictment involving the so-called Islamic state which was unsealed late Friday.
The Illinois suspects, 34-year-old Mediha Medy Salkicevic of Schiller Park, a naturalized citizen, and 42-year-old Jasminka Ramic, a legal permanent resident living in Rockford, are accused along with three individuals from St. Louis and another from upstate New York, with raising money and sending military supplies to aid terrorists in Syria and Iraq.
Five of the defendants are in the United States and have been arrested. A sixth defendant is overseas.
Federal prosecutors accused the six of sending aid to help Abdullah Ramo Pazara, a Bosnian native who came to the United States and became a naturalized citizen living in St. Louis. He left in May of 2013 for Syria.
“We are operating under the asumption that Pazara was killed in 2014,” a U.S. official said Friday night.
The Justice Department said the six sent guns, uniforms, boots, scopes and other military equipment through the U.S. mail to Turkey where the goods were transferred to Syria, often communicating in coded language on Facebook.
“Today’s charges and arrests underscore our resolve to identify, thwart, and hold accountable individuals in the United States who seek to provide material support to terrorists and terrorist organizations operating in Syria and Iraq,” Assistant Attorney General John Carlin said in a statement. "Preventing the provision of supplies, money, and personnel to foreign terrorist organizations like ISIL remains a top priority of the National Security Division and our partners in the law enforcement and intelligence communities."
