Star Tribune
Wednesday sentencing for St. Louis Park man who joined ISIS called off, to be rescheduled
Sentencing for a 27-year-old St. Louis Park man who joined ISIS was called off barely two hours before he was due in a Minneapolis federal courtroom on Wednesday.
The development further delays sentencing for Abdelhamid Al-Madioum, who has remained in federal custody in Sherburne County Jail since the U.S. government transferred him from a Syrian prison in 2020. Al-Madioum quickly pleaded guilty to terrorism support charges in 2021 but has yet to be sentenced while he has helped the U.S. Justice Department in terrorism recruitment investigations around the country.
No reason was publicly stated for Wednesday’s cancellation. A notice from the court only states that Al-Madioum’s sentencing “will be rescheduled for a future date and time to be determined.” Messages were left seeking comment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Al-Madioum’s attorney.
The Star Tribune first reported Al-Madioum’s joining ISIS in 2017, years before the government announced his defection and as his fate remained uncertain. His is among the rarest of cases involving Americans who tried joining ISIS around the mid-2010s. Of the estimated 300 Americans who traveled or tried to join the group abroad, Al-Madioum is among barely a dozen to survive and be sent back to the U.S. to face charges.
Al-Madioum became “self-radicalized” in 2014 when, as an engineering student at Normandale Community College, he connected online with an ISIS recruiter who helped him plan his travel to the group. Al-Madioum left his family behind while on a summer 2015 vacation to visit relatives and loved ones in Morocco.
Federal prosecutors are asking Montgomery to sentence Al-Madioum to 12 years in prison, acknowledging that he gave authorities “substantial assistance” since his arrest. This included testimony in federal prosecutions elsewhere of former fellow battalion members. Al-Madioum has described being trained to fight for ISIS, losing an arm to an explosion and later helping the terror organization maintain a database filled with records on fighters and their families.
Manny Atwal, Al-Madioum’s attorney, instead wants Al-Madioum to serve seven years in prison. She notes that he has been incarcerated for five years already, including more than a year in harsh conditions in Syria’s Hasakah prison. Al-Madioum’s wife was killed in front of him and their two young sons before his March 2019 surrender. He has since located the boys, who will soon arrive in Minnesota to be raised by Al-Madioum’s parents.
In a letter to Montgomery last month, filed as part of his attorney’s arguments for a seven-year prison term, Al-Madioum said he hoped to one day help others avoid falling prey to the same recruitment and manipulation ISIS operatives used to lure him into their ranks.
“I’ve been changed by life experience: by the treachery I endured as a member of ISIS, by becoming a father of four, a husband, an amputee, a prisoner of war, a malnourished supplicant, by seeing the pain and anguish and gnashing of teeth that terrorism causes, the humiliation, the tears, the shame,” Al-Madioum wrote. “I joined a death cult, and it was the biggest mistake of my life.”
LE SUEUR – Chris McPhillips knew more than four years ago producing cannabis would be a lot more profitable than selling it.
It’s the next gold mine, oil industry, the wave of the future. And the Twin Cities businessman was determined to get in early on the action. What he didn’t know in 2020 was the millions of dollars, the former Green Giant factory, and the support of a greater Minnesota city he would need to to make it work.
McPhillips, like hundreds of other entrepreneurs, is waiting for Minnesota’s Office of Cannabis Management to start awarding licenses to companies ready to grow cannabis and marijuana that will soon be for sale across the state. But he has built-in advantages that could position his new enterprise, Minnesota Valley Cannabis Co., to take a hefty share in the billion-dollar-plus industry that’s poised to take over Minnesota.
“When we spoke to the city of Le Sueur, they didn’t balk at us coming here,” McPhillips said. “I decided to invest the money that I’ve made here.”
McPhillips is getting outsized attention for his audacious plan to turn a 50,000-square-foot building built in the 1960s into a massive cannabis-growing operation. He bought the building, one of four in the former Green Giant complex in Le Sueur’s industrial neighborhood, about two years back. Once he secures a manufacturing license, he plans to invest up to $10 million into the facility and hire up to 250 workers — 50 full-time, up to 200 part-time — to start operations by the end of next year.
Chris McPhillips, the owner of Minnesota Valley Cannabis Company, and his dog, Scrappy, pose for a portrait inside the former Green Giant canning building he bought in Le Sueur, Minn. (Alex Kormann/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
McPhillips owns Crown Automotive, an auto parts distribution company out of Bloomington. He’s also worked with partners to found CrunkBabies, a Twin Cities-based clothing line. But he switched interest to cannabis once word came from state leaders that Minnesota was interested in legalizing the sale of recreational marijuana.
“There’s only a few markets that come in our history that are brand new,” he said.
Industry experts expect Minnesota’s retail cannabis sales to top $1 billion once they start in 2025. Some financial firms predict Minnesota’s industry could hit $1.5 billion in annual sales and serve one out of eight residents by 2029; other firms are more optimistic.
DULUTH – The St. Louis County Board unanimously approved its 2025 budget during Tuesday’s final meeting of the year — marking the first time the county’s budget has exceeded $500 million.
The budgeted $504,403,199 goes toward public safety, roads and bridges, public health and human services, employee wages, community programming, infrastructure and more. It also considers inflation.
The board’s finance committee chair Annie Harala said in a news release that a half-billion-dollar budget might make people wonder where it all goes. She noted that this is the largest county east of the Mississippi River and that it has an abundance of roads and three courthouses within it.
“These are things to be proud of, but also requires investment to ensure we have equitable services for people throughout the county,” she said.
About a third of the budget is funded by the property tax levy. The final levy was approved at $180 million, which is a 7.23% increase from this year.
DULUTH – The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa announced plans to connect its community to the Willard Munger State Trail.
Tribal leaders are designing a connection from Carlton that leads to both the Black Bear Casino Resort and the Fond du Lac Tribal and Community College, aiming to serve cyclists and pedestrians.
The 70-mile Munger Trail stretches from Hinckley to Duluth, and the project is expected to improve accessibility between Cloquet, Carlton and northeastern Minnesota.
The project team is conducting field studies and surveys to assess environmental and cultural factors before finalizing the trail’s location and design recommendations, a news release said. The band is also seeking community input before it pursues funding.
7-year-old girl killed, 6 other people wounded in stabbing attack at school in Croatia, police say
Le Sueur’s old Green Giant plant could become a cannabis-growing site
St. Louis County Board OKs largest budget yet, at over $500 million
7-year-old girl killed, 6 other people wounded in stabbing attack at school in Croatia, police say
Le Sueur’s old Green Giant plant could become a cannabis-growing site