An eight-year federal investigation into terrorist recruiting yielded what authorities say is one of its biggest breakthroughs Monday, when six Somali-Americans from Minnesota were charged with planning to leave the United States and fight alongside Islamic extremist groups.
Two of the six were arrested by the FBI on Sunday in San Diego, where they intended to pick up passports and then cross into Mexico to board a flight to the Middle East, federal authorities said.
The other four were arrested Sunday by FBI agents at various locations across the Twin Cities.
All six were charged Monday with conspiracy to aid and support a terrorist organization, specifically the group calling itself the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The two arrested in California are Mohamed Abdihamid Farah and Abdirahman Yasin Daud, according to court documents. The four arrested in Minneapolis are Adnan Abdihamid Farah, Hanad Mustafe Musse, Guled Ali Omar and Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman.
It's not clear how the six men, who the Justice Department said range in age from 19 to 21, met or how well they knew each other, but it appears that their paths crossed again and again as they grew up in Minneapolis. After graduating from South High, Farah, Musse and Omar enrolled at Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC). Farah and Musse majored in liberal arts; Omar was a pre-nursing student. Abdurahman, also a graduate of the Minneapolis Public Schools, enrolled at MCTC and studied computer support.
The arrests, which follow a 10-month investigation, indicate that young Somali men in the Twin Cities continue to be targeted and influenced by sophisticated recruiting campaigns carried out by ISIL, investigators said.
One of the men, in a conversation recorded by an FBI source, describes his disgust with living in the United States. "The American identity is dead. Even if I get caught, whatever, I'm through with America. Burn my ID," he said, according to a transcript filed with the case.