The police accused the woman, who was identified as Linda Merhi, 40, of transferring “a little over” 30,000 Australian dollars, or around $24,000, to the Islamic State. Assistant Commissioner Willing said the woman would be charged with five counts of intentionally collecting and making funds available to a terrorist organization. He said the arrest was part of Operation Peqin, a continuing police effort to identify and curb terrorist activity.

The case is not the first one of the kind in Australia. A 16-year-old student and her 20-year-old male friend were arrested in 2016 on charges that they helped raise money for the Islamic State, a case that cast a national spotlight on the issue of terrorist financing in the country. The girl’s lawyer argued in court last year that she had been “brainwashed” and “manipulated” by the man, whom she claimed to be in love with, and who had promised to marry her.

Parramatta, the suburb where the woman was arrested, has a sizable Muslim minority. Some residents expressed dismay over the current case.

“These people are brainwashed because they don’t have the knowledge,” said Hossam Fahrouk, an Egyptian Muslim who immigrated to western Sydney in the past week. “Any normal person, we will not accept this. No religion accepts killing people.”

Last November, the Australian government announced that it would share financial intelligence with other Asia-Pacific countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia, in an effort to curb terrorism financing in the region.