Fishers residents indicted on terrorism and firearms charges

Indianapolis – Josh J. Minkler, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, announced today that a federal grand jury has charged brothers Moyad Dannon, 21, and Mahde Dannon, 20, both of Fishers, Indiana, with one count of attempting to provide material support and resources, including firearms, to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (“ISIS”), a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339B. The defendants are also charged with various firearms offenses. The federal indictment was handed down on July 2, 2019. The defendants have been in federal custody since their arrest on May 15, 2019, pursuant to a federal criminal complaint. 

“National Security is a top priority for the Department of Justice,” said Minkler. “The United States Attorney’s Office is committed to prosecuting individuals who engage in international and domestic terrorism.”

This indictment is the result of a months-long investigation led by the FBI Indianapolis’ Joint Terrorism Task Force with assistance from the Fishers, Indiana, Police Department.

As alleged in last week’s Indictment and the previously-filed Criminal Complaint, in June of 2018, Mahde Dannon, who was awaiting trial on felony theft charges in Lake County, Indiana, hatched a scheme to deliver firearms, including stolen firearms, to a convicted felon who was cooperating with the FBI. The following month, Mahde Dannon introduced his brother Moyad Dannon to the cooperating individual, and the cooperating individual later introduced the Dannon brothers to an FBI agent who was acting in an undercover capacity. 

Between July 2018 and December 2018, the Dannon brothers sold a number of illegally-obtained firearms to the cooperating individual. Around the same time period, the Dannon brothers also began to manufacture untraceable “ghost guns” by purchasing unserialized firearms parts online and assembling those parts into fully-functioning, .223 caliber, semi-automatic rifles, which they sold to the FBI undercover agent.

In late 2018, the Dannon brothers approached the cooperating individual and FBI undercover agent about manufacturing untraceable, fully-automatic, .223 caliber rifles, using much the same process they used to manufacture the semi-automatic rifles. In February of 2019, the Dannon brothers built one fully-automatic rifle which they provided to the FBI undercover agent. 

Shortly thereafter, Moyad Dannon accompanied the undercover agent to a location near the U.S. southwest border in an effort to market that rifle, and additional fully-automatic rifles, to a potential buyer who was also cooperating with the FBI. During that trip, Moyad Dannon learned that the potential buyer sought to ship the fully-automatic weapons to a location in the Middle East, where they would be used by ISIS. Despite learning of the ultimate destination of the weapons, the Dannon brothers agreed to manufacture and sell at least 55 additional fully-automatic “ghost guns” to the buyer from the southwest border, believing those weapons would be shipped to the Middle East, to ISIS and its members.

In furtherance of that agreement, on May 15, 2019, Mahde and Moyad Dannon manufactured five untraceable, fully-automatic, .223 caliber rifles from parts they had purchased online. At that time, the Dannon brothers were fully aware that the plan was to send the five automatic rifles overseas to ISIS. After building the fully-automatic rifles, the Dannon brothers sold all five weapons to undercover FBI agents posing as employees of the buyer from near the southwest border. Almost immediately thereafter, the Dannon brothers were arrested by the FBI.

“This case is the first of its kind for the Federal Bureau of Investigation where you have individuals allegedly making guns to sell and/or send overseas to ISIS,” said Grant Mendenhall, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Indianapolis Division. “This indictment paints a vivid picture of the rapid rise of homegrown violent extremism and the lengths people are willing to go to in their support of terrorist activity.”

Mahde and Moyad Dannon appeared in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis on Thursday, July 11, 2019, to be arraigned on the charges in the Indictment. The Dannons were previously ordered detained, without bond, pending a trial in this matter. 

The Dannon brothers face a maximum of 10 years’ imprisonment on each of the firearms charges, and a maximum of 20 years’ imprisonment on the attempt to provide material support to ISIS charge. The charges in the indictment are allegations. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.

The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Rinka, Chief of the National Security Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and Trial Attorney Paul Casey of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.

Photograph #1

Photograph #1, above, depicts all of the firearms purchased from Mahde and Moyad Dannon during the course of the FBI JTTF investigation. The three rifle receivers in the left foreground of the picture were purchased by the Dannons in furtherance of their illegal firearms manufacturing scheme. The handgun receiver in the right foreground of the picture and the two piles of 7.62mm rifle ammunition in the middle of the table were seized during the execution of a federal search warrant at the Dannons' residence on May 15, 2019.

Photograph #2

Photograph #2, above, depicts .223 caliber rifles manufactured by Mahde and Moyad Dannon during the FBI investigation, including six fully-automatic weapons intended for shipment to the Middle East to support ISIS.