Ahmed Mahad Mohamed, Conspiracy to Support ISIS, Arizona 2024

TUCSON, Ariz. – Two Tucson men, Ahmed Mahad Mohamed, 27, and Abdi Yemeni Hussein, 26, were sentenced last week for conspiring to travel to the Middle East to fight for ISIS.

According to authorities, Mohamed and Hussein, both citizens of Somalia who were living in Tucson at the time of the offense, were sentenced by Chief United States District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps. Mohamed was sentenced to 132 months in prison and Hussein was sentenced to 96 months in prison, followed by lifetime terms of supervised release. Chief Judge Zipps also ordered that both defendants be removed from the United States to Somalia following their sentences of imprisonment.

Mohamed and Hussein pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Provide Material Support and Resources to a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), on August 1, 2024.

The FBI’s investigation revealed that from late 2018 or early 2019 until their arrest on July 26, 2019, Mohamed and Hussein conspired with each other to travel to Egypt for the purpose of fighting for ISIS in the Sinai Peninsula.

Beginning in at least August 2018, Mohamed sought out other ISIS supporters online, stating that he wanted to travel to ISIS-controlled territory to become “the beheading guy” and martyr himself. Mohamed also stated that his only dream was to go to Syria, join ISIS, and “fight jihad,” and he indicated that his friend, Hussein, also desired to travel to ISIS territory abroad.

Before the defendants could board their flight, the FBI arrested them at the Tucson International Airport, where Mohamed was carrying approximately $10,000 that he and Hussein planned to use for travel expenses and to buy firearms.

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