Central Indiana man gets 16 years for trying to provide guns to Islamic State group

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A central Indiana man has been sentenced to more than 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to trying to provide guns to the Islamic State group, prosecutors said Thursday.

Moyad Dannon, 25, of the Indianapolis suburb of Fishers, was sentenced to federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release, prosecutors said in a statement.

His brother, Mahde Dannon, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in October 2021 after pleading guilty to the same charge, prosecutors said.

The Dannon brothers plotted in June 2018 to deliver stolen guns to an undercover FBI agent and sold several guns to the agent, court documents said. Around the same time, they began to make so-called “ghost guns” by buying parts online and assembling them into .223-caliber semiautomatic rifles that they sold to the agent.

A short time later, Moyad Dannon accompanied the agent to the Southwest to try to sell automatic rifles to a potential buyer who was also cooperating with the FBI, prosecutors said. Moyad Dannon learned that the potential buyer sought to ship the weapons to the Middle East, where they would be used by the Islamic State group, they said.

On May 15, 2019, the brothers built five untraceable automatic .223 caliber rifles and sold them to undercover FBI agents, prosecutors said. Both men were arrested immediately.