SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal jury in San Diego has convicted four Somali immigrants — including an imam from a local mosque — of conspiring to funnel money to a terrorist group in their home country.
After a three-week trial and three days of deliberations, the jury convicted the four men Friday of conspiring to raise and send money to Somalia's al-Shabaab (AHL-shuh-BAHB').
The U.S. State Department designated al-Shabaab a terrorist group in 2008, and federal prosecutors have since cracked down on the group's U.S. support with the arrests of some two dozen people, mostly in Minnesota.
Those convicted include 40-year-old Mohamed Mohamud, an imam at a San Diego mosque, along with two taxi drivers and a man who operated a financial business that was used to move the money.
Sentencing is scheduled for May.
