A Texas man is being held in Houston on charges he trained with al-Qaida in Africa to overthrow the interim Somalian government, U.S. officials said on Tuesday.
Daniel Joseph Maldonado, 28, is a former Houston resident alleged to have gone to Africa in November 2005, then on to Somalia in December 2006 to join the Islamic Courts Union and elements of al-Qaida trying to install an Islamic government there, U.S. Attorney Don DeGabrielle said in a statement.
Maldonado, also known as Daniel Aljughaifi, was captured by the Kenyan military as he tried to flee Ethiopian and Somalian forces on Jan. 21, DeGabrielle said.
He was turned over to U.S. officials this weekend, flown back to Houston and on Tuesday went before U.S. Magistrate Calvin Botley, who ordered him held without bail until a Feb. 20 detention hearing.
“This case represents the first criminal prosecution of an American suspected of joining forces with Islamic extremist fighters in Somalia,” said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein in the same statement.
It “serves as a warning to others who would travel overseas to wage violent jihad,” he said.
In Somalia, Maldonado got an AK-47 rifle, military combat uniform and boots, and training in fitness, firearms and explosives, the statement said.
He is charged with conspiring to use a destructive device, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison, and receiving military training from a terrorist organization, with a maximum punishment of 10 years behind bars.
Ethiopian forces backing the Somalian interim government ousted Islamic forces from the Somalian capital Mogadishu in a December offensive.
The U.S. has launched at least one airstrike against suspected al-Qaida forces in Somalia since then and there have been unconfirmed rumors that U.S. forces are on the ground in the unstable Horn of Africa country.
