Davud Ansariy

Introduction

Davud Ansariy is a 41-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan and naturalized United States citizen, also known by the aliases “Kozimjon Gafurov” and “Kozim,” who stands accused of founding and leading a Brooklyn-based network of radicalized individuals that raised money for ISIS and the Al-Nusrah Front between roughly 2013 and 2016. He was arrested in the country of Georgia in August 2026, extradited to the Eastern District of New York on September 23, 2026, and arraigned in Brooklyn federal court the following afternoon on charges of conspiring to provide and attempting to provide material support to the two foreign terrorist organizations. The New York Post reported his return under the headline “Uzbek man nabbed for boosting ISIS from NYC home — after spending decade on the run.”

Background Information

Federal prosecutors describe Ansariy as the leader of a group of radicalized individuals based primarily in Brooklyn, New York, whose members either planned to travel to Syria to fight for ISIS or the Al-Nusrah Front or financed the travel of aspiring fighters. According to court filings described by the Justice Department and the Post, the network’s participants called the group “chayxona,” an Uzbek word translating to “tea house” or “tea party,” using coded language. The fundraising also reportedly supported the families fighters left behind and the widows and families of those killed fighting in Syria. Ansariy worked alongside other alleged members of the same Brooklyn circle, including Akhror Saidakhmetov and Abdulrasul Hasanovich Juraboev, arrested beginning in 2015 as the network unraveled.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Allegations. The claims in this section are allegations from a federal grand jury indictment in the Eastern District of New York and the FBI’s affidavit record, as described by the Justice Department and reported by the New York Post, which reported the government’s account of them. They have not been admitted by Ansariy, who pleaded not guilty to all counts on September 24, 2026, and nothing has been adjudicated in court; he is presumed innocent unless and until convicted.

According to the government’s court filings, Ansariy allegedly raised funds between 2014 and 2016 for aspiring members of ISIS and the Al-Nusrah Front as part of the self-styled “tea party” crew. As a result of those collections, he and others allegedly funded the travel of at least three individuals to Syria in 2013 — all three believed killed there, prosecutors say. He is also accused of raising money for convicted co-conspirator Akhror Saidakhmetov, who was arrested in 2015 after allegedly pledging allegiance to ISIS and telling an FBI informant that if he could not get travel documents to Syria, “I will just buy a machine gun, an AK-47, go out and shoot all police,” court papers claim.

The same alleged circle produced statements that surfaced in federal court records: Saidakhmetov allegedly laid out a plan to shoot a police officer, take his gun and vest, “then we will do the same with a couple of others. Then we will go [to] the FBI headquarters, kill the FBI people,” and Juraboev allegedly told the FBI he would “plant a bomb on Coney Island” if ISIS ordered it, while writing online about shooting then-President Barack Obama as martyrdom. Ansariy’s own charged conduct is the material-support conspiracy: a federal grand jury in Brooklyn returned an indictment against him in November 2021 — while he was still at large — charging one count of conspiring to provide and one count of attempting to provide material support to ISIS and the Al-Nusrah Front, both designated foreign terrorist organizations at the time of the charged conduct.

The incident that returned the case to the news is his capture: after roughly a decade abroad, Ansariy was arrested in Georgia in August 2026, and on September 23, 2026 he was extradited from Tbilisi to the United States, landing at JFK Airport where FBI and NYPD agents met him on the tarmac.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The immediate consequence was judicial: at his September 24 arraignment before United States Magistrate Judge Lara K. Eshkenazi in Brooklyn federal court, Ansariy was held without bail pending further proceedings. He pleaded not guilty to both counts; his court-appointed lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the Post reported. If convicted, he faces up to 35 years in prison, according to the Justice Department.

Officials framed the arrest as the closing of a decade-old account. “Today, we show the world that this FBI does not forget those who support terrorist organizations and skirt justice by fleeing the country,” said James C. Barnacle Jr., assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York field office, in a video announcing the arrest. US Attorney Joseph Nocella Jr. said the defendant had “fled the United States in an effort to evade justice for his extremely serious crimes,” while Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg said Ansariy “ran a network that raised money, arranged travel, and paved the way for individuals who hoped to fight for these foreign terrorist organizations.” The Justice Department thanked its Office of International Affairs, the FBI legal attaché in Tbilisi, and the Prosecutor’s Office of Georgia, which secured the arrest and extradition.

Current Status

Ansariy is in federal custody in the Eastern District of New York, held without bail after his September 24, 2026 arraignment on the two material-support counts, to which he has pleaded not guilty. His case carries docket number 21-CR-594 in the Eastern District of New York, the indictment having been returned in November 2021 and unsealed only with his extradition. The Justice Department’s press release states plainly that “the charges in the indictment are allegations and Ansariy is presumed innocent until proven guilty,” and no trial date or adjudicated outcome appears in the fetched record.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The extradition ends a fugitive decade that began in May 2016, when Ansariy left the United States for Turkey on a one-way ticket purchased the previous day — five days after a co-conspirator’s arrest, per the Justice Department — and did not return until agents met him at JFK. Whatever life he built abroad is over: he now answers a 35-year-maximum federal indictment as a detained defendant in Brooklyn, with the FBI publicly committing to pursue supporters of terrorist organizations “wherever they hide.” For the Brooklyn network he allegedly ran, his capture removes its reported founder and leader and pairs him in the public record with Saidakhmetov, the convicted co-conspirator whose 2015 arrest preceded both the flight and the eventual reckoning.

Sources

U.S. Department of Justice, “Uzbek National Extradited to the United States to Face Charges for Providing Material Support to Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” September 24, 2026.source
New York Post, “Uzbek man nabbed for boosting ISIS from NYC home — after spending decade on the run,” September 24, 2026.source
United States v. Davud Ansariy, Indictment, E.D.N.Y. No. 21-CR-594 (WFK), filed November 22, 2021.source