Suspected Gang Leader Jason Brown, Already Accused Of Supporting ISIS, Now Faces Additional Drug, Gun Charges

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A new federal indictment added drug and gun charges against a suburban man already charged with trying to provide material support to ISIS.

Jason Brown, who also goes by Abdu Ja'Me and Matthew Dobbs, was first charged in 2019 with trying three different times to provide $500 to ISIS. A superseding indictment filed in U.S. District Court accuses Brown of illegally possessing four loaded handguns in the interest of drug trafficking that included distributing methamphetamine.

Brown is also charged with distributing fentanyl, and conspiring to possess marijuana plants illegally with the intent to distribute.

In his initial charges, Brown is alleged to have given money to a confidential source, believing it would be sent to an ISIS soldier in combat in Syria, but who was actually an undercover law enforcement officer.

According to the initial complaint, Brown was believed to be the leader of the AHK street gang based in west suburban Bellwood, known to traffic narcotics in the Chicago area.

He was also accused of using this position of power to recruit and radicalize AHK members to support ISIS, requiring all members to convert to Islam if they aren't already Muslim.

Terrorism expert Tom Mockaitis weighed in on Brown's profile back in November 2019.

"This is the first time, I'm aware, that a group has done this on behalf of ISIS in the United States," Mockaitis said at the time.

In a series of meetings that were recorded, Brown expressed his support for ISIS, prosecutors said. He talked about joining ISIS in Syria several times, telling undercover federal agents he was jealous of the frontline fighters, prosecutors said.

The 2019 complaint said Brown was radicalized in prison and from viewing lectures promoting ISIS and violent terrorist acts.

Brown, 38, of Lombard, has been in custody since his initial arrest in 2019. He pleaded not guilty to the new charges in a hearing Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sunil R. Harjani, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.

If convicted on all counts, or just on many of the individual counts, Brown could face life in prison.