San Diego jury convicts 4 Somali immigrants of providing to support to terrorist group

SAN DIEGO – 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.

The U.S. State Department designated al-Shabaab a terrorist group in 2008, and 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.