This article is Part 2 of a Fox News Digital exclusive series investigating trucking fraud, public safety, and assimilation concerns in southwest Ohio. You can read Part 1 here.
MAINEVILLE, OHIO — A mosque rising amid rural homes and farmland in southwest Ohio has become a focal point in the community’s growing concerns over an influx of foreign-owned trucking companies and trucking fraud, with a Fox News Digital review revealing significant financial ties between the mosque, trucking companies and the government of Uzbekistan.
Roughly one mile north of the main intersection in Maineville, a small Warren County village with about 1,400 residents, sits the Islamic Center of Maineville, which has been under construction for the past four years following its approval by Hamilton Township in April 2022.
Fox News Digital found that the mosque received substantial donations from trucking companies that government records show were cited for serious safety and compliance violations, while the mosque’s own Telegram channel displayed associations with people identified as current or former Uzbek officials.
For years, the Islamic Center of Maineville has posted on Telegram to its 3,600 members, courting donations, acknowledging partnerships with trucking companies, and even sharing screenshots of donations from local trucking companies, owned by Uzbeks, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Buraq Limited, a Springboro trucking company associated with Rukhshona Sultonova, donated at least $28,000 to the Islamic Center across 28 gifts, according to Telegram screenshots reviewed by Fox News Digital.
A review of the company’s records found dozens of reported violations, including multiple English-proficiency violations, four ELD (electronic logging device) violations, three invalid-CDL violations, four expired medical cards and four hours-of-service violations.
Premier Trucking Group Inc., owned by Sam Avazov, has received over 100 total violations, including for unsafe driving and invalid CDLs. In September, the Islamic Center posted a screenshot of a $1,000 donation from Premier Trucking Group, which has donated at least $25,000 to the mosque.
Foko Logistics LLC, owned by Abubakr Olimov and based in Hilliard, donated $20,000 in a single gift to the mosque, and had 52 violations across 37 inspections in FMCSA’s current 24-month record. The company had vehicle-maintenance violations involving damaged brake hoses, an inoperable tractor-protection valve and severely underinflated tires. Ten of its 24 vehicle inspections resulted in an out-of-service designation, a rate of 41.7%.
Maca Transportation and Services LLC, based in Dayton and owned by Muminkhuja Kholkhujaev, donated at least $7,000 across eight gifts. FMCSA’s records show 120 violations across 72 inspections, including an English-proficiency failure and multiple false or incomplete hours-of-service records. The company also had serious brake, tire, and other vehicle-maintenance violations, with 14 of 36 vehicle inspections resulting in an out-of-service designation, or 38.9%.
One trucking company that gave $150,000 to the mosque and helped organize the overall fundraising effort , Phoenix Cargo, told Fox News Digital the mosque approached the company multiple times asking for donations but said the $150,000 figure the company ultimately donated “represents only a fraction of the mosque’s total construction budget” and that “Phoenix Cargo is not even among the project’s top 100 donors.”
Phoenix Cargo has been cited hundreds of times for safety violations, including English proficiency, ELD tampering, and unsafe driving violations.
Fox News Digital reached out to the mosque for comment but did not receive a response. Earlier this month, the Islamic Center said it is “committed to operating responsibly and in accordance with applicable law.”
“The fundraising for the Islamic Center concerns me because a large percentage of the Uzbek truck companies that donate have been repeatedly cited for the same kinds of serious inspection violations,” Nodawolf, an online researcher who lives in the area and has been documenting alleged trucking fraud in southwest Ohio for months and was granted anonymity due to death threats he’s received, said. “Those violations suggest a pattern of non-compliance with our laws and regulations among the donors, which is troubling given the community’s concentration in the freight industry in Maineville.”
Fox News Digital also asked the mosque if an administrator for their Telegram channel with the name “Bek A” is Bekhzod Asrarov, an Uzbek truck driver living in Maineville who authorities say struck and killed 21-year-old Ohio soccer player Tobias “Toby” Forsythe earlier this year. Asrarov was unable to communicate effectively in English at the scene, according to authorities, and has been accused of removing and concealing his dashcam after the crash.
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The mosque did not provide a response.
The Islamic Center’s website says it does “not solicit donations from any foreign government, organization, association, partnership or individual or any agent thereof” and that “any such attempt” should be reported to the mosque immediately. However, the organization’s Telegram account suggests close ties with the government of Uzbekistan, specifically when it comes to trucking companies.
Hamkor Uz Cincinnati Association is a nonprofit organization established in 2020 to unite Uzbeks in the Cincinnati area and support community projects, including the construction of religious and cultural centers. Hamilton Township records identify Hamkor as the owner of the roughly 6.7-acre property where the Islamic Center of Maineville is being built.
Telegram screenshots reviewed by Fox News Digital show the organization’s ties to former Uzbek government officials. One image shows the Mason office of Erkinbay Abdulla, with an accompanying message describing him as a former Uzbek official who “creates the trucking companies.”
Another screenshot contains a community statement attributed to Sukhrob Norbekov, whom an accompanying message identifies as another former Uzbek official who represents the mosque. The material places officials linked to Uzbekistan alongside an organization involved in the mosque project and individuals involved in creating local trucking companies.
Current Uzbek officials also appear to be involved with the mosque and local trucking industry via the central Asian nation’s Ministry of Digital Technologies, according to photos posted on the mosque’s Telegram.
The screenshots show a list of a six-member Uzbek delegation that traveled to the United States in April 2025, including Ambassador Furqat Sidiqov, regional government officials, and three officials from the Ministry of Digital Technologies. Separate posts invite entrepreneurs and truck-company managers to an April 19 IT conference hosted by Hamkor Uz Cincinnati at a banquet hall in Loveland, Ohio.
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Additionally, a review of the Hamkor Uz Telegram channel, with current and former Uzbek government officials as administrators, showed advertisements for local trucking companies, removable truck signs, English courses for truck driving school, and legal counseling. Other posts include the owner of the mosque providing guidance on how to understand “Shariah compliant banking” and a post on “speaking English with the police” and how to “learn on the road.”
Nodawolf said the ties to the government of Uzbekistan are troubling to him “because these Uzbek trucking companies appear to be tightly organized, with patterns that look almost like a shared blueprint.”
“Given the documented safety and compliance problems in many of these companies, it’s reasonable to ask whether gaps in U.S. regulations are being systematically exploited,” he added.
Several locals who spoke to Fox News Digital said they have expressed their concerns about the rise in Uzbek trucking companies and potential safety gaps that could come along with it to their elected officials but have largely been ignored.
“They’re scared, I think they recognize that they could be called names, they can recognize they could be called out for, you know, like, Islamophobic or racist or things, but it’s not that at all,” a resident from nearby Middletown, Ohio, which has also experienced an influx of foreign-owned trucking companies, who posts information about trucking companies online under the name GHOSTOPSUZ, told Fox News Digital.
One lawmaker who has taken action against trucking fraud is Ohio Republican state Rep. Michelle Teska, who represents most of Warren County, including Maineville, and has introduced legislation to strengthen commercial-driver licensing requirements, including a measure requiring driver examinations to be administered in English, which she told Fox News Digital addresses the “low-hanging fruit of the problem.”
“I did some research and basically found out that you can get your driver’s license and your CDL license in the state of Ohio and you can have that test in 10 different languages,” Teska said. “So that, to me, common sense says that’s insanity.”
Teska says she has seen the problem “firsthand” while driving around her district, calling it “rampant.”
“This past weekend, I was at an event in Warren County and I was at an event that is right across the street from the BMV and I was just kind of observing a gentleman pulling in a semi truck cab into the parking lot on a Saturday at the BMV taking up four spaces, clearly had no idea how to drive the truck,” Teska explained. “So I walked over to the BMV and spoke to this person and kind of confronted him and said, hey, do you speak English? He replied, no, I don’t speak English. Asked him where he was from. He was from Uzbekistan. So it was crazy because I was watching it all take place live.”
Authorities in Warren County have been ramping up their presence in the trucking industry and on the roads in recent weeks, including a crackdown over the last week.
“The Hamilton Township Police Department actively monitors traffic safety concerns within our jurisdiction and works with our public safety partners to address violations and unsafe driving behaviors when identified,” a spokesperson for Hamilton Township said. “In fact, our officers recently participated in a targeted traffic enforcement initiative focused on commercial motor vehicles, working alongside partner agencies to identify safety violations and improve roadway safety. We will continue to enforce applicable laws and take appropriate action when circumstances warrant.”
Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell stressed there is nothing inherently wrong with mosque fundraising and he has not received any information that any laws have been broken. He told Fox News Digital, however, that clearly “there’s something going on” within the Uzbek community in southwest Ohio that “warrants at least awareness on the part of law enforcement.”
“It’s disproportionate to what we see with any other immigrant community,” Fornshell said.
Since 2021, Fornshell said the area has seen an “influx of cases involving Uzbeks” that has prompted the need to hire more court interpreters and city employees who speak the language, particularly in the lower courts that deal with traffic offenses.
“I would say hardly a week goes by where we don’t have some felony case involving an Uzbek, it’s pretty frequent at this point,” Fornshell said.
Census data from 2024 shows that roughly 1,500 people born in Uzbekistan live in Greater Cincinnati, while about 3,800 Uzbekistan-born residents live across Ohio. Uzbek community leaders say the actual population is significantly higher, estimating that roughly 4,000 Uzbek families live in southern Ohio, including U.S.-born children.
“This is our motherland now, from now on,” Hamkor Uz board member Nodirjon Ernazarov told the Cincinnati Enquirer through a translator last week in a story highlighting the Uzbek population’s efforts to become part of the community. The article explains that the influx of Uzbeks was driven, in part, by the area’s proximity to the trucking industry.
“Uzbek people are very hardworking people,” Ernazarov added. “So this mosque is (being built) by the help of all Uzbeks.”
The article does not mention that Ernazarov also owns a trucking company, Ray Cargo Corp., which has donated tens of thousands of dollars to the mosque and has been cited for numerous safety violations, including unsafe driving and driver fitness.
Fox News Digital reached out to every trucking company mentioned in the article for comment.