Ali Abdelaziz

In 2002, Abdelaziz was imprisoned in Colorado on charges of document forgery. While in jail, he was recruited by the New York Police Department's Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence, David Cohen, to work undercover within a Virginia-based arm of a group called Muslims of America. Abdelaziz became one of Cohen's highest-paid informants at the time, "earning hundreds of thousands of dollars". The NYPD shared Abdelaziz with the FBI, becoming known as Confidential Informant 184. He was issued a green card, allowing him to leave and re-enter the United States. Abdelaziz worked in Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, and elsewhere in the world. The FBI eventually began to suspect he was operating as a double agent, having told people in Egypt of his life, particularly after he was reportedly administered a polygraph examination. The FBI ended its relationship with Abdelaziz and the American government unsuccessfully attempted to deport him.[5][6] This information was popularized in the book Enemies Within, written by American Journalists Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo, and was used by Conor McGregor in an attempt to antagonise Abdelaziz at the UFC 229 press conference.[5]