Man convicted of conspiring to commit 9/11 style attack on behalf of terror group

A jury has found a man guilty of conspiring to steal a passenger jet and commit a 9/11-inspired attack under the direction of Somalian terrorist organization "al Shabaab."

Cholo Abdi Abdullah , 34, was found guilty Monday on six counts including conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and conspiring to murder U.S. nationals. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Abdullah had sworn allegiance to Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mijahideen, the militant Islamist group commonly known as "al Shabaab," based in Somalia, prosecutors said. He trained with the group for months "with AK-47 assault rifles and explosives at a series of safe houses in Somalia," the Department of Justice said in a news release citing his indictment and evidence presented in court.

He took part in a plot to hijack a commercial plane and crash it into a building in the U.S., reminiscent of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said he went to a flight school in the Philippines from 2017 to 2019 in pursuit of a commercial pilot license, researched pilot jobs, and researched targets "such as the tallest buildings in a major American city" and "how to open a cockpit door from the outside," as well as how to obtain a U.S. visa. He also sent encrypted messages to his al Shabaab handler which included details on post-9/11 hijackings.

Al Shabaab, which has sworn allegiance to al Qaeda, in 2019 embarked on a "string of terrorist attacks" in response to the U.S.' decision to move its Israeli embassy to Jerusalem , prosecutors said. These attacks included a Jan. 15, 2019 attack at a hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, which killed 21 people — including a U.S. national who had survived the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Other attacks by the group included an assault on a U.S. military facility in Somalia on Sept. 30, 2019 and an attack on another U.S. facility in Kenya, that killed three Americans, on Jan. 5, 2020.

Abdullah's involvement in the 9/11 copycat plot was investigated by the FBI. Charging documents said he was in custody of law enforcement authorities in the Philippines since July 1, 2019, and he was later brought to New York to face his charges.

On Monday, he was further convicted on counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, conspiring to commit aircraft piracy, conspiring to destroy aircraft, and conspiring to commit acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries.

He had pleaded not guilty to all counts in 2020. He's set to be sentenced on March 10, 2025.

An attorney for Abdullah did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment Tuesday morning.