Washington: A 31-year-old Indian-American, caught in a FBI sting operation, faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to providing thousands of dollars in material support to three terror groups operating under al -Qaida in war-torn Syria and Somalia.
Gufran Ahmed Kauser Mohammed was arrested last year in a Miami-based terrorism investigation led by an FBI employee, who engaged him and a Kenyan national, Mohamed Hussein Said, 26, in an online, undercover financial scheme. Mohammed had pleaded not guilty in August when he was indicted, but changed his plea when he made an appearance before US District Judge Ursula Ungaro in Miami on Saturday.
Mohammed and Said were charged with conspiring to provide a combined total of about USD 25,000 to the al-Qaida splinter groups. Both defendants were ordered held without bond. Said, who pleaded not guilty, is still set for trial next year, Miami Herald reported. The Miami FBI employee posed as a brother and a sister who supported al-Qaida as a way to communicate in an Internet chat room with the two men overseas.
The men were accused of plotting to finance the terrorist group’s battles in Syria and Somalia, according to an indictment. (PTI)
