Federal agents arrested an 18-year-old Minnesota man on Tuesday after he allegedly accepted delivery of an AK-47 rifle, four magazines and 200 rounds of ammunition from an undercover FBI employee, according to an affidavit unsealed Wednesday in St. Paul.
Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud faces a charge of receiving a firearm and ammunition knowingly or with reasonable cause to believe would be used to commit a felony and a federal crime of terrorism in support of a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Mohamud was arrested at gunpoint as he left the undercover employee's vehicle.
U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen and Christopher Dotson, special agent in charge of the FBI's Minneapolis field office, announced the case at a news conference on Wednesday.
A confidential human source had hundreds of messages with Mohamud via social media and encrypted apps from December 2024 to his arrest, according to prosecutors.
In the chats, Mohamud, according to the complaint, said he wanted to go to Somalia to join al-Shabaab, fight for the group or be part of a mass casualty incident in Minnesota. The FBI spoke with his parents in May 2025.
In July 2026, Mohamud reportedly told the source he didn't have enough money to get to Somalia and was planning targets at home. He mentioned buying two pistols online and attacking either the Mall of America in Bloomington or the Valleyfair amusement park in Shakopee around Christmas, the complaint says. Valleyfair closes in winter.
He said he targeted the Mall of America because it was Jewish-owned, the complaint says, citing last year's antisemitic attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney as inspiration.
Last month, he apparently decided on an October Hmong arts festival at the mall, saying he would just walk in and start shooting.
On September 25, the source said to Mohamud that a man could be selling him a rifle, magazines and ammunition in early October. Mohamud responded that it was too late, the affidavit says. During the exchange, prosecutors say he claimed he was an "active member" of ISIS.
The affidavit includes a selfie-style video in which Mohamud declares allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State and photos of him wearing a black balaclava.
Minnesota has had several Mall of America cases in the last decade. A man who stabbed two brothers inside the mall's Macy's in 2017 said in court that he was answering a call for jihad for ISIS. A 2016 stabbing at a St. Cloud mall injured nine people and was claimed by an ISIS media group. Nine Somali-Americans were convicted or pleaded guilty in a separate case for traveling to Syria.
Mohamud remains behind bars. A criminal complaint only alleges guilt and he is presumed innocent.
