US officers swoop on 2 terror suspects
Source: Agencies |
June 7, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TWO men who wanted to kill American troops were arrested at a New York City airport before boarding flights on their way to join a jihadist group in Somalia, authorities said yesterday.
Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26, both from New Jersey, were arrested on Saturday at John F. Kennedy Airport before they could board separate flights to Egypt and then continue on to Somalia, federal officials in New Jersey and the New York Police Department said in a news release.
During a long investigation, an NYPD undercover officer recorded talks with the men in which they spoke about jihad against Americans.
"I leave this time. God willing, I never come back," authorities say Alessa told the officer last year. "Only way I would come back here is if I was in the land of jihad and the leader ordered me to come back here and do something here. Ah, I love that."
Investigators "remain concerned that once they reach their foreign destinations, they may be redirected against targets back home, as we've seen in the past," New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
"We are also concerned that should they remain undetected and fail in their foreign aspirations that they might strike domestically, as was discussed as a possibility in this case."
The two, both American citizens, faced charges of conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap people outside the United States by joining al-Shabab, an extremist group based in Somalia and connected to al-Qaida.
Teams of state and federal law enforcement agents who have been investigating the two since 2006 took them into custody. They are scheduled to appear in a Newark court today.
The two planned their trip to Somalia for several months, saving thousands of dollars, undergoing tactical training and test runs at paint-ball fields.
Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 26, both from New Jersey, were arrested on Saturday at John F. Kennedy Airport before they could board separate flights to Egypt and then continue on to Somalia, federal officials in New Jersey and the New York Police Department said in a news release.
During a long investigation, an NYPD undercover officer recorded talks with the men in which they spoke about jihad against Americans.
"I leave this time. God willing, I never come back," authorities say Alessa told the officer last year. "Only way I would come back here is if I was in the land of jihad and the leader ordered me to come back here and do something here. Ah, I love that."
Investigators "remain concerned that once they reach their foreign destinations, they may be redirected against targets back home, as we've seen in the past," New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
"We are also concerned that should they remain undetected and fail in their foreign aspirations that they might strike domestically, as was discussed as a possibility in this case."
The two, both American citizens, faced charges of conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap people outside the United States by joining al-Shabab, an extremist group based in Somalia and connected to al-Qaida.
Teams of state and federal law enforcement agents who have been investigating the two since 2006 took them into custody. They are scheduled to appear in a Newark court today.
The two planned their trip to Somalia for several months, saving thousands of dollars, undergoing tactical training and test runs at paint-ball fields.
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