KC man investigated for possible terrorism activity sentenced for passport fraud

A Kansas City man whose secretive travel to the Middle East prompted a terrorism investigation was sentenced Friday for lying on his passport application.

Isse Aweis Mohamud, 22, was sentenced to four years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty last September to passport fraud.

The FBI began investigating Mohamud in April 2017 after his family in Kansas City reported him missing.

Those family members told the FBI they were concerned that he had gone overseas to “engage in jihadist activities.”

Mohamud, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Somalia, quit his job and traveled to Egypt last year without telling his family.

He was detained by Egyptian authorities before voluntarily returning to the United States. He was arrested and charged in the case after he returned to Kansas City

When Mohamud applied for his passport in January 2017, he wrote that he planned to visit Canada.

In order to get an expedited passport he included a travel itinerary for a round-trip flight from Kansas City to Vancouver.

But in his plea agreement with prosecutors, Mohamud admitted that he had lied and never intended to travel to Canada.

Prosecutors said in the plea agreement that they had found no direct evidence of terrorism activity by Mohamud.

This story was originally published January 26, 2018 at 12:19 PM with the headline "KC man investigated for possible terrorism activity sentenced for passport fraud."