One of at least eight Somali-American men from Minnesota accused of planning to join Islamic State pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring to provide material support for the militant group, court records show.

Hanad Musse, 19, was part of a larger group of Somali-American friends and relatives, all U.S. citizens, who federal prosecutors have said were conspiring to leave the United States and join the militant group.

Musse pleaded guilty in a hearing before Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Davis. Musse, who has been held since his arrest in April, was ordered remanded to federal custody.

“This defendant made multiple attempts to leave Minnesota to join ISIL – criminal prosecution was the best remaining option to stop him and potentially save his life,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said in a statement, using an acronym for the group. “Twin Cities’ youth continue to be the targets of an intense recruiting campaign by ISIL.”

Luger said it was a shared responsibility of parents, teachers, religious leaders, community leaders and law enforcement to stop the cycle of recruiting.

Musse was indicted in May on charges of conspiracy to support Islamic State, attempting to provide material support to the group, and financial aid fraud. The trial of the six remaining defendants is scheduled for February.

Prosecutors accused Musse of trying to leave the United States twice to join the militants, first in November 2014 when he was turned back from John F. Kennedy International Airport and again in April when he was arrested.

Musse withdrew $2,400 from his federal financial aid account in October and November last year, using some of the money for a bus ticket to New York, where he bought a round-trip airplane ticket to Greece with a plan to go to Syria, prosecutors said.

Later, Musse and others planned to obtain false passports to travel overseas to join the Islamic State and he was arrested in April as part of that plan, prosecutors said. Musse’s attorney could not be reached immediately for comment.

Dozens of people from Minnesota, many of them young Somali-American men, have traveled or attempted to travel overseas to support Islamic State or al Shabaab, a Somalia-based militant group, since 2007, according to U.S. prosecutors.

(Reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Source: Reuters