Categories
· Cross-Border/Crime
· Terrorism
USA, by State
· Tennessee
|
Feds focus on alleged illegal sales
Jump to full article: Knoxville (TN) News-Sentinel, 2009-12-24
Author: Jamie Satterfield
Intro: Unable so far to mount a terrorism case against a Northwest Knoxville convenience store operator captured on audiotape discussing vague plans of jihad, federal authorities are now revealing the major stolen cigarette smuggling operation they say he headed.
In a series of documents unsealed in the past two weeks in U.S. District Court, the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore allege four Middle Eastern men were involved in a network peddling cigarettes stolen in Tennessee, affixed with fake tax stamps and then hawked to convenience stores and small grocers in Detroit.
Heading up the operation, they contend, was Hazam Ali Ahmed, 35, who operated the Central Convenient Store on Keith Avenue. . . .
Authorities now are turning back to the 2006 cigarette smuggling case that apparently put Ahmed on their radar screen. Court documents unsealed in recent days show that Jack S. Yacou and Ala Abed Asmaro have struck deals with the U.S. Attorney's Office to plead guilty to their respective roles and provide evidence against Ahmed. Another man, Bahi Aziz Khoshiko, is accused in a complaint filed by FBI Agent David Bukowski of being a member of the smuggling operation but a records search netted no formal charges filed against him. It's unclear which of those three, if any, is the informant who agreed to secretly tape Ahmed.
Jump to full article » |