( CNN ) -- A Somali terror leader implored his fellow countryman in California to send money 'to finance jihad , '' triggering a chain of events that ended with four convictions . U.S. government agents recorded dozens of such calls a few years ago , according to the Department of Justice . And on Friday , a jury found four Somali nationals guilty of supporting terrorism in their native country . The verdict came after prosecutors played the recordings to jurors in a San Diego federal court during weeks of trial . The four , who included an imam and a cab driver , had raised $ 10,000 and wired it to the Islamist terrorist group Al-Shabaab , according to the original indictment . Cab driver Basaaly Saeed Moalin had many phone conversations with former Al-Shabaab leader Aden Hashi Ayrow , before a U.S. missile strike ended the latter 's life in May 2008 . Investigators from the FBI , Homeland Security and a San Diego anti-terror agency recorded dozens of them . Federal prosecutors filed charges in November 2011 . The group pleaded not guilty . But the recordings convinced the jurors otherwise . Read the case file ( pdf ) The money was n't coming fast enough for Ayrow , who implored Moalin in at least one recorded call to hurry it up . `` You are running late with the stuff , '' Ayrow told him . `` Send some , and something will happen . '' Ayrow pushed the cab driver to get his local imam to come up with some funds . Mohamed Mohamed Mohamud ran the City Heights mosque in San Diego , which many in the Somali community attended . Together with a second cab driver , Ahmed Nasiri Taalil Mohamud , and an employee at a money transfer company , Issa Doreh , they raised the cash and wired it to Al-Shabaab , the Justice Department said . It was n't the only favor Moalin did for the terror group . Moalin had kept a house in Somalia 's capital Mogadishu , one of the world 's most embattled cities at the time . He offered to let the terrorists use it , the Department of Justice said . `` After you bury your stuff deep in the ground , you would , then , plant trees on top , '' Moalin told Ayrow in a recorded conversation . Prosecutors argued he was `` offering a place to hide weapons . '' For months , they talked about `` bullets , bombing and Jihad , '' said U. S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy . After hearing the recordings , the jury no longer bought the defendants ' explanation that they `` were actually conversations about their charitable efforts for orphans and schools , '' she said . Sentencing is scheduled for May 16 . Al-Shabaab is one of about 50 groups that have been designated by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations . The Islamist extremists have been waging a war against Somalia 's government in an effort to implement a stricter form of Islamic law , or sharia . In recent years , Somali and African Union troops , who have received funding from the U.S. government , have won many battles against the terror group , pushing it back to a handful of strongholds . For more than 20 years , Somalia did not have a stable government , and fighting between the rebels and government troops added to the impoverished east African nation 's humanitarian crisis . In January , the United States granted official recognition to the Somali government in Mogadishu .
San Diego jury convicts four Somalis after hearing recorded phone calls with terror leader . Federal agents record dozens of calls over months . Prosecutor : They talked about `` bullets , bombings and Jihad '' The defendants said the conversations were about charity for orphans .