Federal Agents in the News
Federal Agents...
U.S. charges four with trafficking to benefit terror
NEW YORK—Federal prosecutors charged four men as part of two undercover overseas drug stings by U.S. officials.
The criminal charges represent the latest efforts by U.S. officials to crack down on what they say is a “growing nexus” between illegal narcotics trafficking and terrorism funding. “Both [sets of defendants] were prepared to traffic in terrorism, not just drugs,” said Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, on Tuesday.
The undercover operations included heroin buys by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration informants in Afghanistan and RoRomania, according to two criminal indictments unsealed Tuesday.’ In both cases, confidential government informants posing as associates of Hezbollah and the Taliban told the defendants the heroin was destined for the U.S. and the profits would be used to fund known terror groups, according to the indictments.
According to one of the indictments, Taza Gul Alizai, an Afghan, allegedly sold six AK-47 assault rifles and about 15 kilograms of heroin over a two-year period to a DBA informant who said profits from the drug sales would be given to the Taliban.
Mr. Gul has been charged with engaging in a narcoterrorism conspiracy, narcoterrorism and narcotics importation.
He was arrested on Monday in the Maldives. In a court appearance in Manhattan on Tuesday, Mr. Gul pleaded not guilty; he remains in custody. A lawyer for Mr. Gul declined to comment. In the other indictment, three men were charged in alleged conspiracies to import heroin or to provide material support to Hezbollah.
Sioavosh Henareh, known as “the Doctor,” allegedly agreed to help government informants import heroin to the U.S., prosecutors said. The informants allegedly told Mr. Henareh that profits from the sale of heroin in the U.S. would go to Hezbollah, according to court documents.
Through their meetings with Mr. Henareh, the informants were allegedly introduced to Ce-tin Aksu and to Bachar Wehbe, a Lebanese man, prosecutors said.
Messrs. Aksu and Wehbe allegedly tried to buy military-grade weapons from the informants, according to court
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Quote of the Quarter
"A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have." —Gerald R. Ford
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documents. Mr. Wehbe claimed he was buying weapons on instructions of Hezbollah, prosecutors said. Messrs. Aksu and Henareh were charged with conspiracy to distribute heroin. Messrs. Aksu and Wehbe also were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to Hezbollah and conspiracy to acquire antiaircraft missiles.
Mr. Wehbe, who was arrested in the Maldives Monday, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. A lawyer for Mr. Wehbe declined to comment.
Messrs. .Aksu and Henareh were arrested in Romania Monday and prosecutors are expected to seek their extradition to the U.S. Authorities in the Maldives and in Romania cooperated in the arrests.
Lawyers for Messrs. Aksu and Henareh couldn’t immediately be identified.
Grenanades case Hits Justice
Blunders After U.S. Arrest of Suspected Supplier Has a Part in High-Level Ousters
Federal authorities are probing why the U.S. in 2010 let go an Arizona man accused of supplying grenades to a Mexican drug cartel, a case that played a role in the ouster last week of the nation’s top firearms regulator and the U.S. attorney in Phoenix.
U.S. officials said missteps in the case, which hasn’t been previously disclosed, are being investigated by the Justice Department and Congress. Federal agents in 2009-10 at the Phoenix office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives led the case against the suspect, who they believed was dealing grenades to cartels in Mexico. The case was overseen by prosecutors in the Arizona U.S. attorney’s office, the U.S. officials said.
The Arizona U.S. attorney’s office and the Phoenix ATF office are the Justice Department units behind another botched operation, called Fast and Furious, which has been
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