New York (CNN) -- Two New Jersey men arrested at a New York airport were charged in a federal criminal complaint with conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap people outside the United States, officials said Sunday.
Mohamed Mahmoud Alessa, 20, of North Bergen, New Jersey, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, of Elmwood Park, New Jersey, were taken into custody Saturday at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The two intended to take separate flights to Egypt on their way to Somalia "to join designated foreign terrorist organization al-Shabaab and wage violent jihad," federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Read the criminal complaint against Alessa and Almonte (PDF)
The FBI received a tip regarding the men's activities in October 2006, according to the U.S. Attorney's office in New Jersey. An undercover officer with the New York Police Department's intelligence unit "recorded numerous meetings and conversation with them," the statement said...
