Six Somali-Americans Arrested Trying to Join Islamic State
Six Somali-American men who planned to travel to Syria to fight with Islamic State jihadists have been arrested and were to appear in court Monday on charges of conspiring to support a terrorist organization.
The case was the latest in a series in recent months concerning Americans who have been accused of or stopped from traveling to the Middle East to join extremist groups.
"They are all from Minnesota and are all part of the same conspiracy," federal prosecutor Andrew Luger told a press conference, saying the arrests were the result of a 10-month investigation by a joint terrorism task force.
The men, all friends or acquaintances in what authorities described as a "peer-to-peer" recruitment effort, had attempted to travel to Syria over the past year, with the help of an acquaintance who had made it to the war-ravaged nation and was actively recruiting volunteers in Minnesota.
Four of the men were arrested Sunday in Minneapolis, while two were arrested in San Diego, where they attempted to acquire forged passports and then cross into Mexico to journey to Syria, according to the Justice Department.
"They were not confused young men, they were not easily influenced. These are focused men who were intent on joining a terrorist organization by any means possible," Luger said.
The defendants were identified as Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, Adnan Abdihamid Farah, Abdurahman Yasin Daud, Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman, Hanad Mustafe Musse and Guled Ali Omar.
Also on Monday, in a separate case, an American from New York was sentenced to 25 years in prison after admitting he had tried to join Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
"Marcos Alonso Zea presents a chilling reminder of the danger presented to the United States by homegrown terrorists," US Attorney Loretta Lynch said of the man accused of seeking to "wage violent jihad" against the enemies of Islam.
- 'Burn my ID' -
Minneapolis, with its large Somali immigrant community, is a focal point for investigations on Americans seeking to join Islamist extremist groups.
"We have a terror recruiting problem in Minnesota," Luger acknowledged.
Several men between age 18 and 24 from immigrant families in Minnesota have succeeded in leaving America and joining forces with IS and other groups.
Among them is Abdi Nur, who left the United States bound for Syria in May 2014 and now "recruits individuals and provides assistance to those who want to leave Minnesota to fight abroad," according to the criminal complaint released by the Department of Justice.
Nur knew the men arrested Sunday, according to the 31-page complaint.
Several of them made a previous attempt to travel to Syria in November, but were stopped by officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York who became suspicious of their travel itineraries.
Another Minnesotan in the November plot, 19-year-old Hamza Ahmed, was arrested after trying to fly to Turkey. He was charged with lying to federal agents.
Much of the evidence gathered about the group came from a conspirator who had "a change of conscience" and contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to Luger.
In a conversation recorded by the informant last month about securing the fake passports and crossing into Mexico, Daud told the informant that "we got the frickin' equation, bro... we just need to execute."
In a March 23 conversation, Daud chillingly signaled his determination.
"The American identity is dead. Even if I get caught, I'm whatever," the complaint quotes him saying. "I'm through with America. "Burn my ID."
Source: Agence France Presse
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