Zulfi Hoxha is in a gruesome 2015 beheading video, report says

Growing up in Margate, Zulfi Hoxha was a “goofy kid” who liked everybody, one of his best friends recalled.

But now the 26-year-old man is a senior commander of the Islamic State and a face of ISIS recruitment efforts, according to a story in the Atlantic.

Hoxha is the bearded man featured in a new ISIS propaganda video, his mother confirmed to NBC-10’s Ted Greenberg.

“He was a friendly guy,” said Tom Flynn III, who grew up with Hoxha in Margate. “He was goofy. He was funny. I hung out with him all the time.”

The Atlantic story, however, says Hoxha is the man in a beheading video that ISIS released in October 2016, just six months after he left the United States.

Flynn told BreakingAC the two went through grade school in Margate together, and shared many classes at Atlantic City High School, where they graduated in 2010.

They lost touch after that. The rumors of his old friend’s links to ISIS started a couple of years ago.

“It wasn’t out of the ordinary for him to go to Albania to see family there anyway,” Flynn said.

But, despite his good memories of Hoxha, the idea that he could be part of a violently radical group wasn’t unbelievable, Flynn said.

He remembered Hoxha’s numerous conspiracy theories, including thinking the Sept. 11th attacks were an inside job. Hoxha even had a shirt he wore to high school often that said as much.

“Truthers are perfect game for them,” said a source in the Sunni Islamic community who asked not to be named.

He noted people often lump all Islam together, but ISIS comes from the teachings of Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahab and Ibn Taymiyya.

“Sunni Islam builds bridges, while the Wahabists (linked to ISIS) are all about poorly directed hate,” he said.

Hoxha’s family owned a pizza shop in Margate when he was growing up. They still live in the city, but no longer own the business.

Retired Margate police Sgt. Christopher Koch Sr. remembers Hoxha being in and out of trouble as a juvenile.

He remembered another officer reporting Hoxha to the FBI once because of a Facebook posting, but couldn’t recall the specifics.

The youngest of three boys and a girl, “he and his brothers used to claim they were Albanian mafia, never verified,” Koch said.

“He was always pretty crazy,” Flynn said. “A wild child, high strung.”

Now that “wild child” is believed to be atop the FBI’s terrorist list.

Local FBI Special Agent Jessica Weisman said the agency cannot confirm or deny such an investigation.