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"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....Minneapolis resident Abdi Mahdi Hussein was also indicted and arrested on a charge of conspiracy to structure financial transactions."
The unsealed October 21 indictment alleged that "from February 2009 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...."
Other allegations cited "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 (Qaran Financial Express), to structure financial transactions to avoid record keeping requirements."
Yusuf was arrested on November 1 in St. Louis, Hussein on November 2 in Minneapolis. Still at large, Diiriye is thought either to be in Kenya or Somalia. He's charged with one felony count each of "conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization." These charges are commonly used when no evidence of any crime exists, likely the case this time, as well as for the San Diego suspects.
Charges against Yusuf and Hussein say they solicited funds within and outside the Eastern District of Missouri, then arranged for transfer to Al-Shabaab. Diriye is then alleged to have arranged their delivery.
Reporting on the case on November 3, AP writers Jim Suhr and Amy Forliti cited Kulane Darman, president of Qaran Financial Express (QFE), saying he doesn't know Hussein, and the DOJ information is incorrect.
QFE is a remittance company for immigrants or migrants who wish to send money home to family members. It transmits funds mainly to Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Uganda through offices in seven states, including Minnesota, home to America's largest Somali immigrant population, numbering over 32,000.
A Profile of Al-Shabaab
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