Two Minneapolis Men Charged with Trying to Help ISIS
Published at | Updated at
Digital Vision/Thinkstock(MINNEAPOLIS) — The FBI has arrested a Minneapolis college student and charged another man — who is still overseas — for allegedly being part of a conspiracy to help ISIS, authorities said.
Abdullah Yusuf, 18, of Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, was arrested Tuesday as part of a broader FBI investigation in Minnesota targeting “numerous individuals” there who have tried to join ISIS or had successfully made their way to war-torn Syria and Iraq, where the terrorist group is wreaking havoc and radicalizing others around the world through online propaganda.
According to federal authorities, Yusuf knew another Minnesota man who went to Syria in March — and two months later Yusuf tried to go there himself.
This past spring, Yusuf obtained a passport and bought an airline ticket to Turkey, where he would find his way into Syria, according to federal prosecutors.
On May 28, after his father dropped him off at school, Yusuf made his way to the airport, but the FBI caught up to him there and told him he couldn’t leave for Turkey, authorities said.
Charges against 20-year-old Abdi Nur were also announced on Tuesday. According to charging documents, he left for Turkey in May. He was supposed to return to the United States in June, but he never came back.
“More than 16,000 recruits from over 90 countries traveled to Syria to become foreign terrorist fighters with alarming consequences,” said the head of the Justice Department National Security Division, John Carlin. “This is a global crisis and we will continue our efforts to prevent Americans from joining the fight and to hold accountable those who provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations.”
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio