Two North Shore brothers charged with supporting Hamas by feds

Two St. Tammany Parish brothers, Omar and Abdel Adhami, are in jail, facing federal charges after investigators alleged they helped raise and move more than $83,000 in support of Hamas.

Although the pair was arrested in September, federal court records detailing the allegations were unsealed earlier this week in federal court on Poydras Street. In the documents, the two brothers are accused of collecting large donations via social media accounts via SnapChat and Instagram and communicated through WhatsApp.

Monies raised were allegedly sent to the Gaza Strip and received by the Hamas terrorist organization.

The FBI worked in a joint investigation with the New York City Police Department to develop the case.

According to the documents, an undercover New York City police detective was contacted by Abdel, the older of the two brothers, who tried to convince him to bring large amounts of cash to Louisiana. That caught the attention of the FBI, who began tracking the two.

Over the course of several months, the pair were documented contacting alleged Hamas figures, who explained how to raise funds and disguise the payments prior to sending the money to Gaza.

The case has much broader implications, according to federal prosecutors, as the Adhami brothers have been linked to others in a digital network that, according to the government, traversed the country and may have raised more than $1.75 million in illegal funds.