Hamza Ahmed, ISIL Support Conspiracy, MN 2023

Hamza Ahmed, 21, of Minneapolis, Minnesota, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison today for conspiring to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), marking the latest conviction in a sweeping terror recruitment case targeting Minnesota’s Somali community. Ahmed is one of six defendants already sentenced out of nine charged in the U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

Adnan Farah, 20, and Hanad Musse, 21, were also sentenced today—each receiving 10 years behind bars for their roles in the conspiracy. All three pleaded guilty to charges related to attempting to travel overseas to join ISIL, a designated foreign terrorist organization responsible for mass killings and atrocities across the Middle East.

According to court documents, in May 2014, Ahmed fraudulently obtained federal financial aid intended for tuition at Minnesota Community and Technical College. Instead, he used the funds to buy a Greyhound bus ticket to New York City and airfare bound for Syria. He was intercepted by federal agents at JFK International Airport before boarding his international flight. Ahmed pleaded guilty on April 25, 2016.

Adnan Farah worked within the conspiracy from 2014 into early 2015, attempting to secure a legitimate passport to travel to Syria. When that failed, he shifted tactics—providing money and a photograph to obtain a fake passport. He also aided co-defendant Hanad Musse in obtaining fraudulent travel documents. Farah entered his guilty plea on April 14, 2016.

Musse, also 21 and from Minneapolis, traveled by Greyhound to New York in November 2014 and linked up with co-conspirators at JFK. There, he purchased round-trip tickets to Athens, Greece, with the intent to cross into Syria and join ISIL. He was stopped at the airport by federal law enforcement. Musse pleaded guilty on September 9, 2015.

The case was investigated by the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, involving more than a dozen federal, state, and local agencies. Prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Andrew Winter, John Docherty, and Julie Allyn—with support from the Department of Justice’s National Security Division—authorities emphasized that no cooperation was offered by any of the three defendants. ‘ISIL continues to target Minnesota’s Somali community,’ said U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger. ‘Only by working together will we succeed in ending this threat.’