Muhammad Masood, 28, was formally charged Friday for his alleged ties to the Islamic State but has been in custody since he was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on March 19.
Federal prosecutors said Masood told informants that he was working for the jihadist group, which controls large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq. They said he was in the US on a work visa.
From January to March, Masood made several statements to informants he believed were members of the Islamic State, expressing a desire to fight for the group in Syria and carry out attacks against the US, according to court papers.
In one instance, Masood messaged an informant: “there is so much I wanted to do here … lon wulf [sic] stuff you know … but I realized I should be on the ground helping brothers sisters kids,” according to court papers.
Prosecutors said Masood was planning to travel to Syria at the end of March, by way of Amman, Jordan. But he had to change his travel plans after Jordan closed its borders because of the coronavirus pandemic, and hatched an elaborate scheme to fly from Minneapolis to Los Angeles to travel to Syria on a cargo ship, court papers said.
The Mayo Clinic has confirmed that Masood had worked at the medical center but wasn’t employed there at the time he was arrested.
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