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March 29,
2006 |
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NINETEEN CHARGED WITH RACKETEERING TO SUPPORT TERRORIST ORGANIZATION
DETROIT
- An indictment charging 19 individuals with operating a global racketeering
conspiracy was unsealed in federal district court today, announced United
States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan Stephen J. Murphy.
The indictment alleges that portions of the profits made from the illegal
enterprise were given to Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization.
Nine of the individuals were arrested this morning.
"Fighting terrorism and keeping our citizens safe from its reach
are the number one priorities of this office," said U.S. Attorney
Murphy. "The law enforcement agencies involved in the case unsealed
today must be applauded for their collective effort to bring together
an investigation with this sort of global reach. Together, we will use
all of the legal tools available to us to disrupt criminal activity that
funds terrorist organizations."
The indictment charges that between 1996 and 2004, a group of individuals
worked together in a criminal enterprise to traffic in contraband cigarettes,
counterfeit Zig Zag rolling papers and counterfeit Viagra to produce counterfeit
cigarette tax stamps, transport stolen property and launder money. The
enterprise operated from Lebanon, Canada, China, Brazil, Paraguay and
the United States. The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on
April 14, 2004, was sealed pursuant to a court order until today.
Arrested this morning by members of the Detroit Joint Terrorism Task Force
("JTTF") were: Karim Hassan Nasser, 37, of Windsor, Ontario;
Fadi Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 33, of Dearborn, Mich.; Majid Mohamad Hammoud,
39, of Dearborn Heights, Mich.; Jihad Hammoud, 47, of Dearborn, Mich.;
Youssef Aoun Bakri, 36, of Dearborn Heights, Mich.; Ali Najib Berjaoui,
39, of Dearborn, Mich.; Mohammed Fawzi Zeidan, 41, of Canton, Mich.; Imad
Majed Hamadeh, 51, of Dearborn Heights, Mich.; Adel Isak, 37, of Sterling
Height, Mich.
Also named in the
indictment, but not arrested today because they currently reside outside
of the United States were Imad Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, 37 of Lebanon,
formerly of Dearborn, Mich.; Hassan Ali Al-Mosawi, 49, of Lebanon; Hassan
Hassan Nasser, 36, of Windsor, Ontario; Ali Ahmad Hammoud, 64, of Lebanon;
Karim Hassan Abbas, 37, formerly of Dearborn, Mich.; Hassan Mohamad Srour,
30, of Montreal, Quebec; Naji Hassan Alawie, 44, of Windsor, Ontario;
and Abdel-Hamid Sinno, 52, of Montreal, Quebec.
Theodore Schenk, 73, of Miami Beach, Fla. was not arrested today but will
be voluntarily surrendering himself for arraignment on April 10, 2006.
The indictment alleges that Imad Hammoud, along with his partner, Hassan
Makki, ran a multi-million dollar a year contraband cigarette trafficking
organization headquartered in the Dearborn, Mich., area between 1996 and
2002. Makki pleaded guilty in 2003 in federal district court in Detroit
to racketeering and providing material support to Hizballah. Some of the
cigarettes were supplied to the organization by Mohamad Hammoud, who was
convicted in 2002 in federal district court in Charlotte, North Carolina,
of, among other crimes, racketeering and providing material support to
Hizballah. Makki and Mohamad Hammoud, who were not charged in the indictment
unsealed today, were identified as unindicted co-conspirators. They both
are currently serving prison sentences relating to their activities in
this matter.
The indictment charges that the group would obtain low-taxed or untaxed
cigarettes in North Carolina and the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in
New York and bring them into Michigan and the State of New York for the
purpose of evading tens of millions in state cigarette taxes. The enterprise
obtained large profits by reselling the cigarettes at market prices in
Michigan and New York. The enterprise sometimes used counterfeit tax stamps
to make it appear that the state taxes had been paid.
The indictment charges that portions of the profits made from the illegal
enterprise were given to Hizballah. Some members of the enterprise charged
a "Resistance Tax," being a set amount over black market price
per carton of contraband cigarettes, which their customers were told would
be going to Hizballah. Some members of the enterprise also solicited money
from cigarette customers for the orphans of martyrs program run by Hizballah
in Southern Lebanon to support the families of persons killed in Hizballah
suicide and other terrorist operations.
The U.S. Secretary of State has designated Hizballah a foreign terrorist
organization. An entity may be designated as a foreign terrorist organization
if the Secretary of States finds that: (1) the organization is a foreign
organization; (2) the organization engages in terrorist activity; and
(3) the terrorist activity of the organization threatens the security
of United States nationals or the national security of the United States.
U. S. Attorney Murphy was joined in the announcement by Daniel D. Roberts,
Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field Office, FBI; Valerie J. Goddard,
Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives;
Brian M. Moskowitz, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement; Maurice Aouate, Special Agent in Charge of the Detroit Field
Office of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation; and Michael
Cleary, Special Agent in Charge, FDA-Office of Criminal Investigation.
An indictment is
only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to
a fair trial in which it will be the government's burden to prove guilt
beyond a reasonable doubt.
In announcing the indictment, United States Attorney Stephen J. Murphy
commended the work of the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives; Special Agents of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service; the Food and Drug Administration
Michigan State Police and the Dearborn Police Department. The case is
assigned to Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kenneth Chadwell and Barbara McQuade.