A Department of Energy electrical engineer has been arrested on charges of providing support to the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, including by buying materials for homemade explosives and drones and travelling to Yemen, the Justice Department said on Thursday (October 1, 2026).
Court records do not list an attorney available to speak on his behalf. Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy, 51, of Richland, Washington, was arrested on Thursday (October 1, 2026) and is due to make his first court appearance Friday.
Ellaboudy himself was recorded telling FBI informants, whom officials had introduced into the investigation, that he had to be smuggled into and out of Yemen and that he had hoped to reach the country’s capital to make government-level connections, the affidavit says.
He was ultimately unable to make it to Sanaa, the FBI said. During the course of the investigation, the FBI says, he communicated with multiple informants — including one who purported to be a Houthi colonel — and provided advice and assistance on communications equipment.
