Fourth Somali sent to prison in terrorist funding case

SAN DIEGO - A cabdriver from Anaheim on Friday became the 4th Somali national to be sentenced to prison for providing money and other support to a terrorist group in their native country.

Ahmed Nasir Taalil Mohamud, 38, was sentenced to six years in prison for his part in helping the al-Shabaab militia, which has been linked to assassinations, suicide bombings and the use of roadside bombs.

Mohamud and the three others were convicted at trial of conspiring to support a group deemed by the U.S. government to be a terrorist organization. Mohamud gathered money from donors in Orange County, according to prosecutors.

Three co-defendants were sentenced in federal court here in November.

San Diego cabdriver Basaaly Saeed Moalin, 37, was sentenced to 18 years; Issa Doreh, 57, an employee of a now-defunct San Diego money transmitting business, was sentenced to 10 years; and Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud, 41, an imam at a San Diego mosque, to 13 years.

In one of many phone calls intercepted by federal authorities, an al-Shabaab leader, later killed by a U.S. missile strike, urged Moalin to send money because it was “time to finance the jihad.”

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tony.perry@latimes.com