DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — A Brooklyn man who threatened to buy a machine gun and shoot law enforcement agents and who tried to fly to Turkey to join ISIS is facing up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to aid ISIS.
Akhror Saidakhmetov, 21, was busted nearly two years ago with Abdurasul Hasanovich Juraboev and Abror Habibov after a federal investigation started when Juraboev threatened to kill President Barack Obama and plant a bomb in Coney Island.
The 21-year-old walked into court wearing a tan jumpsuit. He sat quietly, looking down at a desk while an Uzbek translator told him what Judge William Kuntz said.
"I know this ISIL is considered terroristic organization by the department of state," said Saidakhmetov after pleading guilty.
Saidakhmetov, who is originally from Kazakhstan, had talked about attacking NYPD and FDNY officers during a recorded conversation with an informant on Jan. 11, 2015.
"We will go and purchase one handgun... then go shoot one police officer. Boom... then we will take his gun, bullets and bulletproof vest... then, we will do the same with a couple of others. Then we will go to the FBI headquarters, kill the FBI people," he said, according to court documents.
Both he and Juraboev were interviewed by federal investigators several times starting in 2014 after Juraboev posted on a terror-related website that they wanted to “commit ourselves as dedicated martyrs” and "shoot Obama and then get shot ourselves," according to prosecutors.
An informant then befriended Juraboev at a Brooklyn mosque, who then introduced him to Saidakhmetov.
The Brooklyn man told the informant about his desire to travel to Syria to wage Jihad.
He asked the informant for help getting travel documents and added that if he was unable to make it to Syria that "I will just go and buy a machine gun, AK-47, go out and shoot all police."
He eventually got his travel documents and purchased a ticket to Turkey after Habibov drove him to a Coney Island travel agency on Feb. 19, 2015.
FBI agents arrested Saidakhmetov when he attempted to board the plane on Feb. 25.
Juraboev pleaded guilty in August 2015 to providing material support to ISIS.
Habibov is still on trial and has not accepted a plea deal, according to court records.
Saidakhmetov moved to the United States illegally after he just started high school. He dropped out in the 10th grade and worked odd jobs, including at a cellphone repair store in Georgia.
His lawyer, Adam Perlmutter, said after the proceeding that his client was an impressionable young man who lived for a time with the informant.
"He's a confused and isolated 21-year-old kid who fell into a situation where he was taken advantage of," he said.
He will be sentenced sometime after July 19.
