Charges: Mpls. man took 35W settlement, left country to join ISIS

An 11th Twin Cities man charged with conspiring to join the terrorist group ISIS in Syria was a survivor of the 2007 Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis, according to a criminal complaint filed Wednesday.

Federal prosecutors say Mohamed Amiin Ali Roble of Minneapolis left the country shortly after he turned 18 and collected more than $91,000 as part of a settlement for injuries he received in the bridge collapse.

His first stop, in October 2014, was to Beijing on a trip with his mother. And then, Roble flew to Wuhan, China, and then took two trips to Turkey. He's never returned from his second trip, and authorities believe he's fighting for ISIS in Syria.

According to the Associated Press, he was just weeks shy of his 11th birthday when his school bus fell about 30 feet as the bridge crumbled.

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Prosecutors haven't said whether Roble used the bridge-collapse money to finance the travels of other Minnesotans, but they say he has generously shared it with his fellow ISIS members in Syria, even paying for vehicles to be used by the terrorist group. He withdrew a total of roughly $47,000 from his checking account while in Turkey near the Syrian border.

In audio recordings secretly taped by a friend who turned into an FBI informant, another man in the conspiracy, Guled Omar, told the others that Roble — known to his friends as "Rose" — was in Syria "passing out money like it's candy," according to a government transcript.

Prosecutors have charged Roble with supporting ISIS and conspiring to support the terrorist group.

Roble is the nephew of Abdi Nur, another young Minneapolis man who prosecutors say made it to Syria and allegedly helped recruit his friends back home to ISIS.