Mpls. man among three charged with aiding al-Shabaab

A federal grand jury has charged three men, including one from Minneapolis, with conspiring to funnel money to the terrorist-designated group al-Shabaab in Somalia.

An indictment unsealed in St. Louis charges Abdi Mahdi Hussein of Minneapolis with one count of conspiracy to structure monetary transactions. Two other men Hussein allegedly worked with face the same charge.

They are St. Louis taxi driver Mohamud Abdi Yusuf and Duane Mohamed Diriye, who is at large in Kenya or Somalia.

Prosecutors say Minneapolis resident Hussein and Yusuf hid thousands of dollars in wire transfers by breaking them up into small transactions. The pair allegedly sent the transfers between 2008 and July 2009, from the Minneapolis wire-transfer business where Hussein worked.

Prosecutors say the men spoke in code and used aliases. They say Diriye was on the receiving end of the payments.

Yusuf and Hussein appeared in court Tuesday.

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