Punta Gorda woman sentenced for attempting to provide ISIS with materials
by WFTX Digital Team
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. — A Punta Gorda woman will spend the next five years in federal prison.
Marie Sheppard, also known as Aiisha Abdullah, 35, was sentenced for attempting to provide material support to ISIS, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
According to a press release, from approximately January 2017 until July 18, 2017, Sheppard knowingly attempted to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, by purchasing and shipping ten cellphones that she intended for ISIS to use to detonate improvised explosive devices.
Sheppard purchased the cellphones from five stores in Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte, and Rotonda West, Florida.
She arranged to have the phones mailed to one of the undercover officers, believing that they would be forwarded to the Middle East and that ISIS would use them as timers for “pressure cooker” bombs.
The court also sentenced Sheppard to a term of 15 years supervised release.