Thread: Two Indicted in Missouri for Support to Terrorist

Department of Justice Press Release

For Immediate Release
November 3, 2010 United States Attorney's Office
Eastern District of Missouri

Two Indicted in Missouri on Charges of Providing Material Support to a Terrorist Organization

A Third Defendant is Charged with Structuring Violations

ST. LOUIS—St. Louis resident Mohamud Abdi Yusuf has been indicted and arrested on four charges of providing material support to a designated terrorist organization and one charge of conspiracy to structure financial transactions, U.S. Attorney Richard G. Callahan announced today. Minneapolis resident Abdi Mahdi Hussein was also indicted and arrested on a charge of conspiracy to structure financial transactions.

According to the indictment returned on Oct. 21, 2010 and unsealed this morning, from February 2008 through at least July 2009, Yusuf and a third defendant, Duwayne Mohamed Diriye, a resident of Kenya and Somalia, were involved in a conspiracy to provide funds to al Shabaab, which was designated by the U.S. Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization in February 2008.

The indictment alleges that Yusuf sent funds to al Shabaab supporters in Somalia, including Diriye, from licensed money remitting businesses operating in the United States, in part by using fictitious names and telephone numbers to conceal the nature of their activities. Yusuf is also charged with conspiring with Abdi Mahdi Hussein, an employee of a licensed money remitting business, to structure financial transactions to avoid record keeping requirements.

Al Shabaab, which loosely translates to “The Youth,â€

Immigrant admits funneling money to terrorist group in Somalia


BY JENNIFER MANN
Posted: Friday, November 4, 2011 12:00 am

ST. LOUIS — A Somalian refugee who worked as an airport taxicab driver here was secretly plotting with leaders of an insurgent group back home to fund the terrorist organization, according to documents made public during his guilty plea Thursday.

Mohamud Abdi Yusuf, 31, acknowledged through his plea that throughout 2008 and 2009, he raised nearly $6,000 for al-Shabaab, an organization trying to topple the provisional government in war-torn Somalia.

The U.S. government named al-Shabaab a terrorist organization in 2008.

In a public statement, Dennis Baker, special agent in charge of the FBI in St. Louis, underlined the importance of the conviction, saying at least 20 American citizens have traveled to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, which has top leaders affiliated with al-Qaida.

The money at issue went toward a vehicle al-Shabaab used for tactical operations and to hide and deliver weapons, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Drake said in federal court here.

In plotting the money transfers, Yusuf used aliases and held coded conversations with Sheikh Saaid, a midlevel group platoon leader, according to the plea agreement. They used references to al-Shabaab including: "the youth," "the skull-breakers," "the teeth grinders," "the general cause" and "males who wear short pants."

The plea agreement says Yusuf spoke regularly with an unnamed co-conspirator in San Diego who, according to wiretapped conversations, was passing on direct orders from Aden Hashi Ayrow, the principal military leader and commander of al-Shabaab. Ayrow, who declared a "holy war" against Ethiopian and other African Union supporters in Somalia, died in a missile strike in 2008.

The man in San Diego appears to have been the hub for funneling money from the U.S. to the group, according to court documents.

The documents say Yusuf used various aliases and that his link to the group was a man named Duane Mohamed Diriye, whom he met at a Somalian refugee camp before immigrating to the U.S. He told Yusuf the fighters would "jump out of the vehicle, kill their targets, get back in and flee."

The outlined conversations indicate Yusuf had a more prominent role than might otherwise be assumed based on the amount of money transferred.

His is the first post-Sept. 11 international terrorism case to be prosecuted in the court's Eastern District of Missouri.

Yusuf's arrest on Nov. 1 of last year stirred anger in the city's Somali community, and had some accusing authorities of strong-arm tactics. A Post-Dispatch report outlined how that same day FBI agents singled out several dozen Somalian cabdrivers at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport for questioning, seeking to copy their cellphone memory cards and to examine their personal computers.

U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan declined to comment on the investigative tactics at the time. In what he said was an unrelated move, he appointed an assistant U.S. attorney as an outreach coordinator to the area's growing Islamic population.

Yusuf's defense attorney, Douglas Forsyth, has challenged investigators' use of secret surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. His motion to protest it, not uncommon for cases of this type, was rendered moot by Yusuf's guilty plea Thursday. In court, Yusuf spoke only to answer questions from U.S. District Judge Henry Autrey. When entering his guilty plea for each of four felony counts — one for conspiracy and three for providing material support to a designated terrorist organization — he responded four times, "I did it."

In exchange, prosecutors dropped charges related to immigration fraud and conspiring on monetary transactions.

Yusuf will face up to 15 years in prison for each count at his sentencing Jan. 31.

Prior to the hearing, Yusuf appeared almost relieved, smiling at friends and raising his chained hands in a greeting.

Forsyth declined comment afterward.

Diriye is believed to be in Kenya. Officials are working to have him extradited to the U.S. Another man, Abdi Mahdi Hussein, a Minneapolis resident and employee of a money-wiring company, also faces charges that he illegally funneled funds.

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