Mateo Ventura, 21, of Wakefield, Mass., was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison for secretly funneling money he believed would help the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham carry out attacks, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ventura pleaded guilty to one count of concealment of financing terrorism in October, two years after being indicted by a federal grand jury in 2023.
The department said Ventura sent multiple gift cards to an individual he believed supported ISIS, with the intention that they be resold “on the dark web for a little less than face value,” with the profits sent to ISIS. Between January and May 2023, he made donations totaling $705.
Ventura said he wanted the money to go to the “war on kuffar,” Arabic for unbelievers, for the purchase of “ammunition and explosives.” He also expressed his “desire to fight alongside ISIS overseas,” even purchasing plane tickets to get him to the Middle East.
In addition to the prison sentence, Denise Casper, a senior judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, ordered Ventura to serve seven years of supervised release.
