Two Somali men arrested at the Tucson airport as part of an FBI sting five years ago pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to provide material support for a terrorist organization.
Ahmed Mahad Mohamed, 26, and Abdi Yemeni Hussein, 25, were found guilty of conspiracy to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps. They will be sentenced on Oct. 11, 2024.
Both men were arrested in 2019 after a nearly year-long undercover investigation by the FBI,
according to court documents filed under seal and later made public. Mohamed is a lawful permanent resident and a refugee from Somalia,
and Hussein is also a Somali refugee, according to court records.
Tucson Sentinel reported on the arrests in July 2019.
The case began in mid-August 2018, when Mohamed “initiated contact” with an FBI “online covert employee” on a social media service, authorities said. Mohamed thought the FBI employee was an ISIS supporter, and repeatedly expressed his admiration for the terrorist group.
He told the FBI employee that he wanted to be the “beheading guy” if he joined ISIS in Syria, and wrote that “I only think about jihad everywhere I go but my father and mom, they don’t like jihad if they knew me I want to make hijrah they would spy on me,” court documents allege.
Mohamed also wrote that “I want to kill them so many I am thirsty for their blood,” the documents said.
In December 2018, Mohamed was introduced to an undercover FBI agent in Tucson, and eventually met in person after what the court documents said were repeated discussions about traveling to the Middle East to fight with ISIS.
In March, Mohamed brought Hussein to one of those meetings, and told the FBI agent he wanted to join Al-Shabab, another terrorist organization. Mohamed said he would carry out an attack in the United States if he were unable to join ISIS overseas, the FBI said.
The two men made travel arrangements, including purchasing airplane tickets to travel to Cairo, according to the FBI filing.
The FBI monitored the paperwork submitted by the two men as they planned their travel. The FBI prepared to intercept the men after Mohamed told the undercover agent the duo had bought the tickets, and they drove with the undercover agent to Tucson International Airport the next day.
Both men submitted plea agreements, and Mohamed said he began seeking out other ISIS supporters and communicating with them online about traveling to join ISIS, and killing people. He also admitted that if he came to Syria he wanted to be “the beheading guy” and said he wanted to die fighting for ISIS in Syria.
Mohamed began communicating with an undercover FBI agent, and during their first conversation, claimed he was “thirsty for blood” He later met with the undercover agent, and brought Hussein along. At one point, he told the other men “the only future I have is jihad.”
He also claimed he wanted to attack New York.
In his plea agreement, Hussein said the two men met with a person they “believed to be a fellow ISIS supporter” who also wanted to travel to the Middle East and join ISIS, but was actually an undercover FBI agent. Hussein said during a conversation between the three they talked about either traveling to the Middle East or going to jail, and at one point, Hussein suggested attacking the White House. “It will be ashes… They will count ashes, how many people, they will never know how many people will die there.”
Hussein also said he wanted to be a commander on the front lines in Syria, and said he wanted to “kill so many people.”
In March 2019, a global coalition had managed to push ISIS out of Syria and largely destroyed the “caliphate” the group tried to establish after brutally forcing their way into Iraq and Syria. Despite the military losses, ISIS retained the ability to launch terror attacks throughout parts of Africa, Asia and Europe and maintained 8,000 to 16,00 fighters, according to U.S. officials.
In July 2021, the group blew up a crowded market in Iraq, killing at least 35 and injuring several dozen people. A year later, the group laid siege to a prison in Syria in an attempt to free ISIS members. The attack was broken by Kurdish forces backed by the U.S.
Hussein said his desired attack would be bigger than Sept. 11, 2001. “This is something the world has never ever seen before,” he admitted. “The whole world will be shocked, everybody will be shocked, they be like, what the hell just happened?”
After this last meeting on June 24, 2019, Hussein and Mohamed prepared to travel to Egypt. Both men sold their cars for around $4,000 each, and Hussein bought round-trip plane tickets for Cairo. He said they did not plan to return to the U.S.
Hussein and Mohamed rode to the airport with the FBI agent with just over $10,000 in cash and Hussein said they planned to use the money for food, hotel and to buy guns if needed. They planned to travel from Cairo through the Sinai peninsula where they would link up with ISIS.
According to court records, both men bought tickets, went through passenger screening and walked to the departure gate before they were intercepted by federal agents.
A conviction for conspiracy to provide material support and resources to a group like ISIS—which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization— carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, a fine of $250,000, or both, said Zach J. Stoebe, a Justice Department spokesman. Following their incarceration, both men will be removed from the U.S. to Somalia.
The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force conducted the investigation in this case, Stoebe said. The United States Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are handling the prosecution.