By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
From our nation’s heartland comes the latest allegation of people supporting al Qaeda with cash.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in St. Louis unsealed an indictment Wednesday charging three men including a cab driver from St. Louis with conspiring to fund al Shabaab, a terrorist group in Somalia linked to al Qaeda, authorities announced.
The indictment charged cab driver Mohamud Abdi Yusuf, a Somali national who immigrated to the United States as a refugee, with one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and three counts of providing material support to al Shabab.
Authorities allege that Yusuf and Abdi Mahdi Hussein of Minnesota sent money through a Minneapolis wire transfer business where Hussein worked, to Al Shabab supporters in Somalia between 2008 and at least July 2009. Authorities allege that Duane Mohamed Diriye received the money. He is believed to be in Somalia or Kenya.
U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan issued a statement saying: “This type of activity is uncharacteristic of the local Somalian population in the St. Louis area, which is approximately 2,000.”
