A Long Beach man pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for sending a dozen payments to suspected members of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and for illegally possessing a homemade bomb.
Mark Lorenzo Villanueva, 29, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Villanueva has been in federal custody since August 2025.
According to his plea agreement, Villanueva began communicating in February 2025 over a social media messaging platform with an individual who represented himself to be an ISIS fighter living in Syria. This individual told Villanueva how to send him money in Syria.
Based on these instructions, Villanueva sent more than $1,600 with the understanding that the money would be spent on ammunition, weapons, and other supplies for ISIS to conduct operations. Villanueva also discussed conducting operations for ISIS in the United States.
During a search of Villanueva’s home in August of 2025, law enforcement found a manufactured a bomb packed with large amounts of ball bearings and other metal objects, including nails, screws, and nuts. At all relevant times, Villanueva knew the bomb was considered a firearm and a destructive device under federal law, and the device was not federally registered as required by law.
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At the time Villanueva possessed the homemade bomb, he knew he has been convicted of felony stalking in Los Angeles Superior Court in September 2017 and was prohibited from possessing any firearm.
United States District Judge Anne Hwang scheduled a June 17 sentencing hearing, at which time Villanueva will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for attempting to provide material support to a federal terrorist organization, and up to 15 years in federal prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force investigated this matter.
Assistant United States Attorney Colin S. Scott of the National Security Division is prosecuting this case, with substantial assistance from Trial Attorney Patrick Cashman of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section.
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