Man accused of recruiting youths into ISIS, Al Shabaab arrested

Man accused of recruiting youths into ISIS, Al Shabaab arrested

Police have arrested a most wanted suspected terrorist identified as Ali Hussein Ali in a major operation in Kenya.

The suspect, who is also known as ‘Trusted One’, is said to have been involved in major human smuggling and terrorism financing activities in more than five countries.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, Kenya National Police Spokesman George Kinoti said Ali has links with ISIS and Al-shabaab terror groups and has been linked to the Magafe human smuggling network in Libya.

“ The suspect was nabbed together with his accomplices Ibrahim Abasheikh Mukhtar and Abdi Mohamed Yusuf aka Dader in Malindi during a joint operation carried out by security agencies on 27th March 2017”, Kinoti said.

According to police, Ali was born in Mogadishu, Somalia. He moved to Kenya in 2010 under the pretext of being a tourist and then to South Africa, Sudan and finally ended up in Tripoli, Libya where he was recruited to join ISIS.

Kinoti added that Ali sneaked back to Kenya last year where he became a key agent of ISIS and the Magafe human smuggling network.

“Ali famously referred to as the ‘Trusted One’ played a major role in facilitating travel of ISIS recruits from Kenya and Somalia to join ISIS in Libya” Kinoti added.

Detectives interrogating Ali said the suspect is behind the transfer of money to the ISIS network in South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, Dubai and Libya. Police say the money is transferred through several countries before reaching Libya to conceal the transaction trail.

“At the time of his arrest, Ali was demanding USD639,000 which is equivalent to Ksh64 million from ISIS leaders”, Kinoti said.

The money was allegedly a facilitation commission he was to be paid after safely delivering recruits to ISIS in Libya.

The detectives said Ali and his accomplice Mukhtar house the recruits in lodgings in Eastleigh and Malindi before facilitating their travel to Libya through Kampala via th eBusia border and thereafter to Juba in South Sudan and finally to Libya.

“Mukhtar is a landlord in Watamu and an ISIS facilitator. He uses his houses to accommodate the terrorists and recruits waiting to be smuggled to Libya”, Kinoti added.

Security agents have established that about ten families in Kenya are currently being extorted by the terrorists to pay ransom.

Kinoti added: “Some of the recruits whose parents paid ransom perished”.

Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet is calling on parents to report any disappearance of their family members to the nearest police station.

Tags:

terrorism Al Shabaab ISIS

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