He had a one-way ticket to Somalia, but he never made it past the security checkpoint at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Zaki Mohammed Sugule was arrested at the airport on Presidents’ Day, acting suspiciously. According to airport police, the 39-year-old was traveling with a fake Somali passport — the wrong color, poorly laminated and name misspelled. Sugule told police he was trying to self-deport himself out of the United States in order to “turn his life around.”
Fox 9 has learned federal agents became concerned because in his pocket was the name and address of a contact in Syria, raising the fear Sugule may have been attempting to fly to Somalia to fight for al-Shabaab, or perhaps would attempt to reach Syria to fight for ISIS.
Another East African man — who we are not identifying — was arrested the same day for traveling with false documents, and it’s unknown if the two were traveling together.
Several people who knew Sugule say he was known as the local drunk or inebriant. They can’t imagine he would planning to fight for ISIS or al-Shabaab. They just don’t think he’s competent enough.
Sugule has been arrested more than 40 times in the last decade for assault, disorderly conduct, and terroristic threats. At the Starbucks in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood last year, he threatened to kill people with a drill bit. He has a habit of sucker punching people at random, and once used a piece of broken glass to slash someone across the face.
Airport police arrested Sugule last week on five outstanding warrants, and a few days ago, a judge sentenced him to 1.5 years in prison. Ominously, Sugule told airport police, according to the report, “after he cleared up his warrants he would be coming back again to leave the U.S.”
