Mohamed Said pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to foreign terrorist organisations. A factual statement signed by Said identifies those groups as al-Shabaab in Africa and extremist organisations operating in Syria, including al-Qaeda.
Said, 27, faces a maximum 15-year prison term when he is sentenced August 14 by US District Judge Ursula Ungaro. A co-defendant, Gufran Mohammed, who is is a naturalised US citizen originally from India , is already serving that same 15-year sentence after pleading guilty last year.
FBI undercover employees posed as online terrorism recruiters and fundraisers in communications with both Mohammed and Said, who were both overseas.
Said admitted in the factual statement that in 2011 he received more than USD 11,600 in wire transfers from Mohammed for al-Shabaab and that he had told Mohammed later, "I sent it and it was distributed among the mujahedeen."
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"I am sending more this week," Mohammed wrote back.
Said's defense had centred on claims that prosecutors could not prove he was the person typing on a computer in Africa when the incriminating communications were sent. But according to authorities, Said admitted his involvement in terrorism in conversations with inmates at a Miami detention center.
Before his arrest, Said admitted discussing travel routes, training and possible terrorist operations with an FBI confidential source posing as an al-Shabaab recruit. In such conversations, the recruits were called "tomatoes" or "dogs," according to the statement.
Mohammed has a master's degree in computer science from California State University in Los Angeles. He had been living in Saudi Arabia since 2011. Said was living in Mombasa, Kenya, and had never been to the US before his arrest.