Georgia handed over to the USA a suspect in financing ISIS*.

Georgia extradited to the USA the leader of the radical cell "Chaykhana", 48-year-old native of Uzbekistan Davud Ansari, accused of financing the "Islamic State*.

48-year-old native of Uzbekistan Davud Ansari (also known as Kozimjon Gafurov and "Kozim") was extradited from Georgia to the USA, who had been on the international wanted list for more than ten years on charges of financing and supporting international terrorist organizations.

Ansari was detained in Georgia in August 2026 during a joint operation of the Prosecutor General's Office of Georgia, the US Department of Justice, and the FBI attaché office in Tbilisi. On the morning of September 23, a special convoy delivered the accused to New York, where he appeared before a federal court in Brooklyn, reports Newsgeorgia.

The US Department of Justice expressed official gratitude to the Georgian law enforcement agencies for their key role in the capture and extradition of Ansari. According to American investigators, Ansari was at the head of an underground cell of radicals based in Brooklyn. Within the group, members referred to their community as "Chaykhana".

Under the guise of meetings in a chaykhana, Ansari and his accomplices conducted recruitment and raised funds to send volunteers to Syria to participate in hostilities on the side of the "Islamic State*" and "Jabhat al-Nusra*" - a former branch of "Al-Qaeda*".

In 2013, the funds from "Chaykhana" paid for the trip to Syria for at least three recruits. According to the FBI, all three subsequently died in the conflict zone. The organization also raised money to support the families of departed militants, their widows, and orphans.

Ansari managed to evade justice since May 2016. He fled from the USA to Turkey on a one-way ticket just five days after the FBI arrested one of his key accomplices.

In November 2021, he was charged in absentia in Brooklyn. Five years later, Ansari was found and detained in Georgia, where he was trying to settle under false names.

"After ten years on the run, Ansari has returned to the USA, where he will answer for supporting two of the most brutal terrorist groups in the world… We thank our partners, both domestically and abroad, for their assistance in ensuring the capture of terrorists, wherever they may hide," said John Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

"Caucasian Knot" also reported that in May 2026, three Georgian citizens involved in the terrorist organization "Islamic State*" were detained in the Pankisi Gorge. In April, the State Security Service of Georgia reported the detention of two individuals who pledged allegiance to the terrorist organization.

* terrorist organization banned in Russia.

** the activities of the company Meta (owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp) are banned in Russia.