Six Minnesota Men Charged with Allegedly Trying to Help ISIS, Federal Officials Say - East Idaho News
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Six Minnesota Men Charged with Allegedly Trying to Help ISIS, Federal Officials Say

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getty 042015 terrorarrests?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1429525928654iStock/Thinkstock(MINNEAPOLIS) — Federal authorities announced charges Monday against six Minnesota men who — along with a broader group of friends — allegedly conspired together to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

“These were not confused young men,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said at a news conference Monday morning in Minneapolis. “These are focused young men who were intent on joining a terrorist organization by any means possible.”

Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman, 19, Adnan Farah, 19, Hanad Mustafe Musse, 19, and Guled Ali Omar, 20, were arrested in Minneapolis on Sunday. Abdirahman Yasin Daud, 21, and Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, 21, were arrested the same day in California after driving from Minneapolis to San Diego, according to the Justice Department.

Authorities said the arrests cap a 10-month FBI investigation into ISIS recruitment in Minneapolis, where recruitment has been outpacing most other U.S. cities.

At least nine Minnesotans are known to have gone to Syria for ISIS or tried to join the group there. A least three of them have since been killed in the fighting, authorities said.

In December, federal prosecutors in Minneapolis called the recruitment pipeline in Minneapolis “a longstanding criminal conspiracy with members known and unknown.”

Furthermore, some of those Minnesotans persuaded to take up arms with the brutal terrorist group obtained money and other support from “a person or persons unknown” to the U.S. government, federal prosecutors said in December.

But when asked in late February about ISIS recruiters inside the United States, Attorney General Eric Holder said the FBI and Justice Department “have a good handle on who they are.”

“We are pretty effective in monitoring those people who would serve as recruiters,” Holder told ABC News’ Pierre Thomas.

In the past two years, nearly 50 Americans have been charged with trying to join ISIS or are otherwise suspected of being radicalized by the group.


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