Somali intelligence helps US arrest alleged perpetrators of fraud in Minnesota | Crime Stories

US prosecutors have arrived in Somalia for the main suspect in a US fraud case.

Mogadishu, Somalia Prosecutors in the United States have reached across the globe to arrest a suspect in a Minnesota fraud case and arrest him in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

Abdikerm Abdelahi Eidleh, 42, was arrested on Thursday, while US authorities announced his arrest on Friday. His arrest is a clear sign that the search for those behind the attack has gone global.

Neither US nor Somali officials have disclosed how Eidleh was found. However, the Department of Justice said his arrest was the result of cooperation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency.

Critics describe Eidleh as the one being told deputy Aimee Bock, who was found guilty of a program built around Feeding Our Future, a Minnesota nonprofit that received federal funding to feed needy children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, the US was called 47 people in the nearly $250m fraud that took advantage of the child food program, the largest epidemic aid fraud ever prosecuted in the country.

Eidleh fled to Somalia when the attack was foiled. Bock was recently sentenced to more than 40 years in prison.

According to prosecutors, Eidleh recruited people to work in the scheme and collected bribes and kickbacks, often disguised as solicitation payments and paid through shell companies.

He is accused of setting up his restaurants under the names of the owners, falsely claiming that they were serving thousands of children a day, and creating retail companies to bill the government for meals that were not delivered.

“This is a big catch,” U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Daniel Rosen told CBS News, calling Eidleh a key figure who recruited businesses and paid bribes to steal government funds.

Struggle with the Somali people

The Trump administration has been accused of Feeding Our Future to the goal of the Somali people of Minnesotathe nation’s largest, with about 84,000 Somalis in the Minneapolis-St Paul area.

Most were born in the US or are permanent citizens.

Somalia was included in the list of countries that banned the travel of Mr. Trump when he returned to power in 2025 and he also threatened to remove American citizens obtained by fraud.

Late last year, he also described the Somali people as “garbage” in one of his many brutal demonstrations in Somalia and the Somali American community.

Federal Immigration Enforcement agents swarmed the Minneapolis area, and two people were killed by ICE agents – Renee Good in early January with a nurse Alex Pretty after weeks – lit weeks of protests.

In January, the secretary of national security Kristi Noem moved to the end Temporary Protected Status, a designation that protects people from being deported to dangerous countries, for about 1,100 Somalis, ending protection that has stood since 1991.

A federal judge blocked the removal in March, and the legal battle continues.