The first Islamist extremist to be found with plans for 3D-printed firearms has been jailed for seven years after using a far-right internet channel to download the instructions.
Abdiwahid Mohamed, 33, from Neasden, north London, had used encrypted messaging app Telegram – nicknamed “terrorgram” by experts – to download instructions from a far-right extremist and was trying to buy a 3D printer on eBay.
Police discovered the documents along with messages supporting ISIS after downloading his phone during a “schedule 7” stop at Heathrow Airport.
It marks the first time that an Islamist has been found with instructions on how to make the homemade weapons which were developed by anti-gun control fanatics in the US.
Mohamed arrived at Heathrow Airport Terminal 3 on a Kenyan Airways Flight from Nairobi on 9 February 2022, following a visit to Kenya where his wife and children live.
He was released but his phone was later analysed and police discovered that he was using Telegram accounts to store 36 files which contained plans showing how to manufacture firearms using a 3D printer.
He was using a private channel called ‘Tactic’ as a repository for materials forwarded from another channel called ‘Between the Lines of Grift’, the original source of the information.
Between the Lines was set up by Pavol Benadik, a Slovakian far-right extremist who was a leading member of an online group called the Terrorgram Collective, which was banned by the government last April.
Further analysis of Mohamed’s phone revealed he had a “strong interest in weapons, terrorism and radical Islamic ideology,” Martin Hackett, prosecuting, told Kingston Crown Court.
Mohamed was using the handle “Ibrahim” to participate in chat groups called “GPU Graphics Card” and “World Peace Advocates” on Telegram and the handle “John Wick” for a group called “Chocolates and Candy”.
In one post, he stated: “We have to kill them along with their kuffar [non-believer] brothers, no mercy. The munafiqeen [hypocrites] are the reason we are weak today.”
He commented in another chat that he “loves fighting” and talked about martyrdom and suicide, saying that his choice of weapon would be a submachine gun.
One online post referred to Islamic State activity in the Democratic Republic of Congo, affiliates such as al-Shabaab in Somalia, and the al Qaeda preacher Anwar al-Awlaki.
At the end of one post, Mohamed used an ISIS slogan in Arabic “the Islamic State shall endure”.
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He also had articles with titles: “Join the Club of Terrorism”; “Essay Regarding the Basic Rule of the Blood, wealth and honour of the Disbelievers; “The Islamic Ruling on the Permissibility of Self-Sacrificial Operations” and “This is Our Aqeedah” by Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi.
When police arrived at Mohamed’s home to arrest him on 18 January 2023, they found a further mobile phone with Islamist extremist materials and searches made on eBay for 3D printers.
Police discovered Mohamed was using his two Telegram profiles to send files to himself using private one-to-one chat and the Tactic channel.
KFC_Secret_Blend.pdf
One file, the FGC-9 “redactor’s cut” was specifically designed to be shared on Telegram and outlined in over 100 pages how to produce a carbine assault rifle, boasting it was “much easier to build than most previous home-made gun designs”.
Another file, Mac Daddy Release v1.0 provided a professional instruction manual on how to print the component parts and construct them step by step to assemble a self-loading pistol.
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A file titled KFC_Secret_Blend.pdf showed how to make a 9mm submachine gun from items available in hardware stores according to plans by a British author called Philip Luty.
Mohamed refused to give evidence but Sultana Tafada KC, defending, said some of the manuals required further research or knowledge in order to construct the weapons.
Jailing him for a total of seven years on six counts of possessing information useful for terrorism, the judge, Peter Lodder KC said the evidence “clearly demonstrates terrorist connections and motivations”.
Acting Commander Gareth Rees, from Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorism Command, said: “Mohamed tried to conceal what he was doing by using two anonymous accounts and storing the documents on the encrypted app’s servers, but this didn’t stop us from identifying what he was up to.”
