FBI Disrupts Alleged ISIS Plot Involving California Men and Drone Attacks
“Among the messages, prosecutors allege Ghafoor said he wished to behead a female soldier and stated, ‘I wish I could kill 300,000,000 Americans.'”
Some disturbing news from my neck of the woods.
Two California men have been charged over an ISIS terror plot to kill U.S. Special Forces operatives with grenades and drones. One of the charged comes from the San Diego County city of Lakeside.
Bereen Dzayee, 25, of Lakeside, near San Diego, and Elias Shamsaldeen, 21, of Porterville in Tulare County were arrested Friday alongside Bisaam Ghafoor, 21, from Leawood, Kansas.
Prosecutors allege the three paid $2,000 to someone they thought was from the jihadi group to buy rocket-propelled grenades and UAVs for the attack.
According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Kansas, the three men allegedly spent more than a year communicating about extremist plans, including discussions about leaving the US to join ISIS.
Dzayee allegedly proposed using drones to target Special Forces personnel while Shamsaldeen is accused of expressing a desire to carry out a knife attack against a US serviceman.
California Navy sailor, 25, 'caught in ISIS plot to kill Special Forces using rocket-propelled grenades and drones' https://t.co/N99SBBIq7y pic.twitter.com/H5i2C43pJ0
— New York Post (@nypost) June 7, 2026
U.S. officials also allege the men pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and discussed wanting to leave the U.S. to fight for ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria).
“These subjects allegedly swore allegiance to ISIS, plotted multiple attacks, and even targeted U.S. service members — but this FBI stopped them cold,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement.
According to the complaint, the men allegedly began communicating around February 2025 with someone they believed to be an ISIS member. Prosecutors allege those communications continued through June 2026 as the men discussed plans to support the terror group.
Among the messages, prosecutors allege Ghafoor said he wished to behead a female soldier and stated, “I wish I could kill 300,000,000 Americans.”
The Lakeside neighborhood was a bit startled when the FBI Task Force rolled up.
🇺🇸 3 U.S. citizens arrested for plotting to fund ISIS weapons through cryptocurrency.
Not a foreign cell, but homegrown.
They tried to build a crypto war chest for RPGs and drones specifically targeting U.S. troops.
FBI caught them early: over $2,000 sent to an undercover… pic.twitter.com/dHCOpI1thf
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) June 6, 2026
“We looked out — it seemed to me like it was a white van that pulled up and tactical guys jumped out and surrounded the house,” a neighbor told NBC 7. “Very odd in this neighborhood. So the neighbors started coming out. We didn’t approach but we were watching.”
The agents spent the next several hours going through the interior of the home as well as the garage, and talking with Dzayee’s parents.
“You immediately — you see Terrorist Task Force, your alarms go up,” the neighbor added. “I actually walked up to the FBI agent and asked if the house was going to blow up, should the neighborhood be concerned, and he assured me, ‘No, we’re arresting someone is all we got.”
Residents said Dzayee wasn’t much for socializing.
“He doesn’t really speak to folks around here, which is again unusual for this neighborhood,” the man who lives nearby told NBC 7.
ISIS plot suspect arrested in Lakeside, California.
Federal prosecutors allege 25-year-old Bereen Dzayee conspired to provide material support to ISIS and suggested U.S. Special Forces should be targeted with drones.
The DOJ says the group pledged allegiance to ISIS, sent… pic.twitter.com/4uBwuZgUif
— Amy Reichert (@amyforsandiego) June 6, 2026
What stands out here is not just the depravity of the alleged plot, but how close to home it hit and how long it appears to have been developing. This was not a fleeting online fantasy; it was sustained intent, operational planning, and a willingness to target American service members on U.S. soil.
Credit where it’s due: federal law enforcement appears to have disrupted this before it moved from talk to tragedy. But this case is also a reminder that the threat landscape hasn’t disappeared, but has simply become quieter, more decentralized, and, for me, uncomfortably local.
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Looks Arab to me
“California men”
Bingo
They could arrest them today because their votes were already counted. On another note this shows why Islam is not compatible with America.
who the ___________ is leaking trumps calls w/netanyahoo!!??
I want the fbi on that and the cia on the fbis shoulder and visa versa
you cant even get “teens” who murder people to get their names leaked so that we can be protected by these blmplo pos
Lakeside? I live in an adjacent city, and this punk would’ve gotten swirlys
Denaturalize and deport, after a 30 year sentence in Supermax.
Execute them and then deport them.
Let me guess – White Supremacists?
Nah, They were Amish.
“California Raisins.”
It’s always the Amish.
So, the plot involved “UAVs”? Is this a case of the reporter not knowing what a UAV is, the prosecutor not knowing what it is, or these knuckleheads really thought someone could get them an UAV?
Now, I’m looking at this from an Air Force point-of-view. I realize the Army called their backpack-sized stuff “UAVs.” But in common use for a number of years, Unmanned Aerial Vehicle meant something plane-sized. The difference between what have for years been called “drones” – they can fit in your hand or two people might carry it – and what people now call “drones” – the Shahid. Which is plane-sized.
The use of RPG rounds implies they’re wanting something that can probably carry a RPG, not something in which you could pack 500 lbs of explosives. And if they really wanted the latter, they have to have been smoking something, because no one is going to simply smuggle one of those into the country.
Of course, if their heads were screwed on straight, they wouldn’t have been planning this absurd attack in the first place.
(Remember that the people writing this stuff and, often, the people putting out press releases, think 2 firearms and 100 rounds is an “arsenal.”)
San Diego, that’s where the recently discovered Tijuana tunnel ends…it’s not just drugs they’re transporting.
That’s nice. But have the FBI managed to track down any of the CCP sleeper cells with their clandestine bio-weapons labs? Yes? No?
Leave a Comment