Government Security News
Thursday, June 21, 2012
A 31-year-old Missouri man will serve more than 10 years in prison for raising money for Somali terror group al Shabaab. A federal judge sentenced Mohamud Yusuf on June 19 to 140 months in prison on charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
According to court documents, between February 2008 and July 2009, Yusuf conspired with others to provide money to al Shabaab, a designated foreign terrorist organization. Yusuf transferred money to the terrorist group using fake names, telephone numbers and money transfer businesses in the U.S.
A man charged along with Yusuf in October, 2010, Duane Mohamed Diriye, a resident of Kenya, remains at large, according to the FBI.
In November of 2011, Yusuf admitted to soliciting money from inside and outside the Eastern District of Missouri and coordinating the transfer of the money to al Shabaab. Members of the conspiracy, according to the court documents, frequently communicated in coded language as they planned the means to transfer money to al Shabaab members and affiliates in Somalia.
“This is the first international terrorism case prosecuted in Eastern Missouri since 9/11 and it represents the FBI’s number one priority in protecting this country against terrorism,” said special agent in charge Dean Bryant of the FBI St. Louis Division in a June 19 statement. “Today’s sentence underscores our concern about people in the United States actively supporting al Shabaab, especially when its leaders publicly pledged their allegiance to al Qaeda just this past February.”
Yusuf entered guilty pleas to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization and three counts of providing material support to a designated terrorist organization last November.