US Energy Department electrical engineer arrested over alleged bid to aid Houthis
Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, 51, of Richland, Washington, was arrested by the FBI on charges of attempting to provide material support to the Houthis after allegedly travelling to Yemen and buying explosive and drone materials.
A US Department of Energy electrical engineer, Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, 51, of Richland, Washington, has been arrested on charges of attempting to provide material support to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, the Justice Department said on Thursday.
Ellaboudy was arrested by the FBI on Thursday at the Hanford nuclear site. He is due before a federal magistrate in Richland on Friday; court records list no attorney for him, the AP reported.
He is charged with attempting to provide material support or resources to the Houthis (Ansarallah), a US-designated terrorist organisation. The FBI alleges he travelled to Yemen in September 2025 on an official passport issued during earlier Army Corps of Engineers work, hoping to reach Sanaa, but never got there, the FBI said.
An FBI affidavit (Sept 30, Eastern District of Washington) says he bought precursor chemicals and drone parts from November 2024 to February 2025. In December 2024, he allegedly took sick leave claiming exposure to highly concentrated nitric acid.
He told border officials his trip was a US missile-defence inspection mission, but his supervisor told investigators he knew of no such travel or programme, the affidavit says. He was recorded telling FBI informants, one posing as a Houthi colonel, that he had been smuggled into and out of Yemen, and allegedly helped test their solar generators and communications equipment.
“These allegations are so deeply disturbing that they almost defy imagination,” said John Eisenberg, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
A conviction carries a maximum 20-year sentence.
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