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From the Los Angeles Times

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China's disabled exploited as slaves

In an economy where manual labor is in demand, ruthless recruiters often prey on the mentally disabled. One man, held at a brick kiln, is one of countless slaves who endured torture and deplorable living conditions.

by Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times

February 26, 2011

Reporting from Xian, China

At 30, Liu Xiaoping is more boy than man, with soft doe eyes that affix visitors with the unabashed stare of the very young and glisten with reluctant tears when his bandages are changed.

It takes effort not to show the pain of the wounds that read up and down his body as a testament to the 10 months he was held captive at brick factories in the Chinese countryside.

His hands are as red as freshly boiled lobster from handling hot bricks from a kiln without proper protective gloves. On the backs of his legs, third-degree burns trace the rectangular shape of bricks, a factory foreman's punishment for not working fast enough. Around his wrists, ligature marks tell of the chains used to keep him from running away at night.

Liu was found wandering in the small town of Gaoling, north of Xian, on Dec. 22, 10 months after his family reported him missing. He was wearing the same clothing as when he'd disappeared in February, but the trousers were glued to the festering wounds on his legs and the gangrene of his frostbitten feet stank through the gaping holes in his shoes.

Despite his injuries and an intellectual impairment, he was able to tell how he'd been tricked by a woman who bought him a bowl of soup and promised him the equivalent of $10 per day, good wages for manual work in rural China.

Instead, he became a slave.

"They took advantage of my brother because he has a mental disability," said his 26-year-old brother, Liu Xiaowei. "They forced him to work, beat him, tortured him, and then when he was too weak to take it anymore, they threw him out on the street."

In an adrenaline-paced economy with a chronic shortage of manual laborers, ruthless recruiters often prey on China's mentally disabled. The worst offenders work with the brick kilns that are feeding a seemingly insatiable appetite for the new apartment complexes and malls cropping up around the countryside.

"The brick factories can never get as many workers as they need. The work is heavy and a lot of people don't want to do it," said Ren Haibin, the former manager of one of several brick factories where Liu said he had worked. "Possibly the mentally disabled can be intimidated and forced to work.... They are timid and easier to manage."

In the Beijing offices of Enable Disability Studies Institute, a nongovernmental organization, director Zhang Wei reels off a list of more than a dozen cases over the last decade in which people were enslaved in appalling conditions, each more nightmarish than the last.

Young women have been sold by psychiatric hospitals as sexual partners and wives; mentally disabled young men have been imprisoned as forced laborers in coal mines and brick factories. In 2008, a brick factory owner beat a young man to death for an escape attempt. In December, Chinese authorities rescued 11 workers who had been sold by a supposed charitable organization for the disabled to a brick factory more than 1,000 miles away.

Reports on conditions in the factory said the workers hadn't been allowed to bathe in more than a year and were fed the same food as the boss' dog.

"Every year there are cases like this," Zhang said. "The worst are when they are violating the rights of the disabled in the name of charity."

Police often won't exert much effort when a mentally disabled person disappears, he said, and even if they're rescued, their testimony is not taken seriously because of their impairment.

"This is not like when a child goes missing. Police will just assume they've run away," Zhang said. Some families, he says, won't even bother to report. "They might feel that they've been relieved of the burden."

That was not the case with Liu Xiaoping. He comes from a loving family who occupy the ground floor of a shabby apartment in southern Xian, where his father sells remedies to people too poor to afford a doctor. Since Liu escaped from the brick factory, he has shuttled between home and the hospital, while his family tries to raise money for skin grafts.

Liu doesn't speak much. When he does, the words come slowly but clearly, as though they've required some concentration. He left school in the third grade, when it became clear that he'd never be able to read or write beyond an elementary level.

But he was strong and healthy. Neighbors would always call on him to help harvest wheat and potatoes and he would hang out at the market looking for odd jobs unloading trucks or carrying parcels.

"He wanted to stand on his own feet," said younger brother Xiaowei. "He was kindhearted and thinks that everybody else is too."

On Feb. 28, 2010, the night of the Lantern Festival that ends the lunar New Year holiday, he and his family were visiting relatives in Shanyang, a town south of Xian. That night, Liu failed to come home, something that had never happened before. His family reported him missing the next day and printed posters that they distributed around the neighborhood.

Little did they know that he had been transported almost 100 miles away to Gaoling, a rural county where there are dozens of brick factories tucked deep in the countryside. They might never have found him if not for another family who'd also lost a son to the brick factories.

***

He Wen went missing June 2. The 35-year-old had been psychologically troubled since his late teens, when he'd suffered a breakdown after failing an exam. He was unable to hold a regular job but could unload trucks and was proud that he'd managed to buy his own television set.

The afternoon he disappeared, a nephew overheard him taking a telephone call from a woman who'd offered him a job that would provide more than $10 a day, meals and a free pack of cigarettes. He rode away on a bicycle.

His father, He Zhimin, is a 62-year-old farmer with unruly whiskers and hands that tremble as he fingers photographs of his missing son.

"I was suspicious as soon as I heard about this supposed job offer. I started asking around and people told me stories about the brick factories," He said.

He went to the local police, but they told him to file the report in nearby Gaoling. The police there sent him back.

"They kept kicking me from one place to another," he said.

So he launched his own investigation. Every afternoon, he'd go out in a three-wheel motorized cart, handing out fliers and business cards with images of his son's square-jawed face. Somebody printed out a map from Google and he marked the locations of all the brick factories he heard about: 58 in Gaoling alone.

Four workers at one factory said He Wen had worked there earlier in the summer and they gave his father directions to other factories nearby. An elderly woman had seen the younger He walking toward downtown Gaoling. Construction workers erecting an apartment complex thought he might have worked there.

"People kept saying they'd seen my son, but by the time I'd get there, he'd have disappeared."

In December, somebody telephoned to say a homeless man who looked like his son was sleeping on the street in Gaoling. He rushed over. He could see that the unshaven, dirt-encrusted man looked like his son: the same height, close in age. But he was not.

Disappointed, he returned home. His wife was furious.

"How could you leave that boy out on the street in winter? Maybe it was our son, after all. Even if he's not, he's somebody's son," she badgered her husband.

After a sleepless night, he drove back to Gaoling. The homeless man was still out in the street, but he was too delirious to give his name. He tried to take him to the police and to a hospital, but nobody wanted to take him in. Finally, he called a journalist, who matched the young man's description to that of another young man reported missing.

He was Liu Xiaoping.

***

As Liu recovered in the burn unit, his brother coaxed the story out of him. Liu told of the beatings and burnings, of the food so meager than he lost 20 pounds, of being chained at night and guarded by vicious dogs, about being shuttled among three brick factories.

He identified a photograph of He Zhimin's missing son as one of 11 disabled workers imprisoned with him. He also picked out from police photographs the woman who tricked him and a man known as Lao Fang, a nickname meaning "Old Fang," the foreman who beat him and the other workers.

He described in detail the location of the three brick factories where he'd worked, one of them where the workers had recognized the photo of He Zhimin's son.

That factory lies at the end of a straight dirt road through fallow corn fields 10 miles from Gaoling. There are a few houses out front, and in back a partially underground room lined with chambers containing brick ovens. Although it was closed for the winter, the manager, Wang Youqiang, was on duty.

"Look around if you like. There's no evidence against me. It's all just rumor," he told a visitor.

Wang acknowledged that it's hard to find workers — "Business is great. We sold 27 million bricks last year and would have sold 30 million, if we had the labor" — but denied using the disabled. "If you say otherwise, show me the proof."

But Ren Haibin, who was manager until June, when he says he retired because of ill health, confirmed most of what Liu Xiaoping claimed. He said the factory contracted with a man named Fang who would supply and supervise mentally disabled workers. Fang's mistress recruited them with the promise of $10 a day in wages.

In fact, the going rate for healthy workers was about $14 a day, whereas the factory paid Fang $4.50 per day for each mentally disabled worker, of which $1.50 was spent on food. The rest went to Fang.

"They made promises they didn't keep," Ren said. "The money went into Fang's pocket. The workers never saw it."

Ren said he never saw Fang beating a worker, but added: "He was not a kind person.... Maybe if they didn't work up to a certain level, there would be no food."

Fang could not be reached for comment. Telephone numbers he had used were disconnected.

In the two months since Liu was found wandering, local authorities have visited many brick factories in the area, requesting lists of workers' names and where they've come from. But no one has been arrested and Liu's family has yet to receive compensation for his medical bills.

"I thought this should be so simple, an open-and-shut case, but it has proved so complicated," said his brother Liu Xiaowei. "I'm very disappointed that our society hasn't done more to protect people like my brother."

He Zhimin, meanwhile, is no closer to finding his son. He fears that whoever is holding him may have spirited him far away to avoid detection. It's not an unreasonable fear; when the disabled workers were rescued in December in Xinjiang, one was found to have been transported 2,000 miles across China.

He Zhimin continues to go out every afternoon, driving through the countryside near the brick factories, thrusting fliers into the hands of passersby.

By now, most people recognize him, so they simply shake their heads: No, they haven't seen his son.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-china-brick-factory-20110226,0,2521478,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Killings Jolt a Family in Mexico

MEXICO CITY — When Josefina Reyes Salazar was murdered in the border state of Chihuahua last year, not long after she accused the military of playing a role in the killing of her son, protests brought attention to the family's plight.

But its torment did not end there. On Friday, the police in Chihuahua found the bodies of Ms. Reyes Salazar's brother, sister and a sister-in-law along a road near Ciudad Juárez, the country's most violent city.

They had been abducted by armed men on Feb. 7 outside a gas station near Ciudad Juárez, which sits along the border with Texas. A month earlier a house belonging to Ms. Reyes Salazar's mother had been set ablaze, and last summer, a brother of Ms. Reyes Salazar was killed.

In all, six members of the family have been killed, one of the more glaring examples of the threat that human rights activists like Ms. Reyes Salazar face in Mexico.

In December, in a case that shocked a country long inured to sensational murders, another grieving mother, Marisela Escobedo, was shot to death in front of Chihuahua's capitol as she demanded justice for the killing of her daughter. Other activists have been killed or received death threats in the past few years as Mexico has waged a battle against organized crime.

Reyes Salazar family members lashed out at the state and federal governments on Friday; Ms. Reyes Salazar's two sisters promised to keep protesting with a hunger strike.

State officials had said the family members might have had links to organized crime, but a spokesman for the family said that assertion was an attempt to sully the family's name. No arrests have been made in any of the killings.

Two weeks ago, Amnesty International warned that the family had received threats and urged state and federal officials to protect it, but it was unclear if any such aid was offered or rejected.

The family is “clearly being targeted in the most brutal way,” said Susan Lee, the Americas director for Amnesty International. “The Mexican authorities' top priority must be to ensure the safety of other relatives.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/world/americas/26mexico.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Abuse Suspects, Your Calls Are Taped. Speak Up.

The men charged with beating, stabbing or burning their wives or girlfriends have plenty to say. Lately, their words have been used against them in New York courts as never before.

“I need you to prepare the kids to start lying,” one man said to his girlfriend. He had been charged with burning her face with a hot iron as she knelt in view of their children.

Another cooed “baby” to the girlfriend he was charged with grabbing by the hair and scratching with keys. “Whatever you do,” he directed, “do not speak to the D.A.”

A third insisted to his brother that he was surprised at all the blood after he used a kitchen knife on the woman he had been with since they were teenagers. “I just stuck her like a little,” he said.

Since last year, every prisoner telephone call at every New York City jail, except calls to doctors and lawyers, has been recorded. And prosecutors have been mining the trove in all kinds of cases — they asked for copies of the recordings 8,200 times last year, city officials said. But there is one area where the tapes are beginning to play a central role: cases of domestic violence.

The reason is simple. Once those accused in domestic violence crimes get on the jailhouse telephone, it turns out, many of them cannot seem to stop themselves from sweet-talking, confessing to, berating and threatening those on the other end of the line, more often than not the women they were charged with abusing.

The tapes overcome one of the biggest hurdles prosecutors face in such cases: that 75 percent of the time, the women who were victimized stop helping prosecutors, often after speaking to the men accused of abusing them.

Scott E. Kessler, the domestic violence bureau chief in the Queens district attorney's office, said the recordings “revolutionized the way we're able to proceed.”

In the Queens Boulevard courthouse where Mr. Kessler's assistant district attorneys handle more than 6,000 domestic violence cases a year, the jailhouse recordings have become an appalling kind of reality radio, a fly-on-the-wall guide to the chilling intimacies of domestic violence.

“We have the ability now,” Mr. Kessler said, “to prove what we've always suspected, which is that the defendants in domestic violence cases are in constant contact with their victims, and they use various means and methods to try to have the case dropped.”

The jailhouse calls are almost always flagrant violations of court orders directing men charged with domestic violence not to contact the women who were attacked.

Deirdre Bialo-Padin, the domestic violence bureau chief in the Brooklyn district attorney's office, said the tapes gave jurors a vivid understanding of men who can be masters of manipulation.

In one Brooklyn case, she said, the defendant has called the victim from jail 1,200 times.

In the cases in which victims stop cooperating with prosecutors, the recordings plug crucial holes. District attorneys use the recordings partly to explain why injured women are not testifying for the prosecution.

In those instances, the law often permits prosecutors to introduce statements — that would otherwise be barred — made by the victims to the police or hospital workers before they stopped working with prosecutors, including identification of attackers and descriptions of the attacks.

Around the country, jail recording systems vary greatly in their sophistication. Domestic violence prosecutors in some states are far behind their New York colleagues, said Casey Gwinn, a former California prosecutor who is president of the National Family Justice Center Alliance, which provides training and assistance to domestic violence prosecutors.

“When you're talking about domestic violence cases,” Mr. Gwinn said, “this policy of monitoring every jail call is probably the single most important investigative procedure put in place in the last decade anywhere in the country.”

On the recordings used in Queens cases, the men proclaim their love. They tell the women to disappear when it is time for the trial. They beg and plead.

The Queens courthouse tapes gathered for this article include one of Mohamed Khan, who was charged with slicing his wife's head and shoulder with a meat cleaver. He was recorded from Rikers Island telling her that he was a “brand new” man and had been under the spell of a “passion of love.”

She ended up testifying that she did not remember who her attacker was. Because the recordings showed what the prosecutors called “a campaign of coercion,” they were able to introduce her statements at the hospital and to the police.

Mr. Khan was convicted and was sentenced last May to seven years in prison.

The men have been heard complaining to the women about what they see as unfair charges.

“I need you right now in my corner,” begged Eric Persaud, the man charged with branding his girlfriend's cheeks with the iron. He had a strategy, he said: she should vanish for the trial. “I'm smarter than you,” he said in one of what prosecutors have said were 437 calls from Rikers Island.

On Wednesday, he pleaded guilty, and he is to be sentenced next month to 13 years in prison.

The men obsessively explain their crimes to anyone who will pick up the phone.

A defendant named Juan Mighty explained that it was jealousy that had led him to knife the woman “a little.” But he conceded that the scene had been gory. “There was mad blood in the house, T.,” he said in a call to his brother. “There was mad blood in the house.”

He was convicted in June and sentenced to 12 years.

And the tapes have caught the men trying gentle charms. Ishaaq Rahaman, a 28-year-old with big brown eyes, kept saying “baby” to the woman he was charged with scratching with keys, urging her not to tell the prosecutor anything useful.

“Basically tell him things like this: ‘It was just a misunderstanding. I love him. We want to get married and we want to have children together,' ” he suggested. “Say something nice like that, anything like that, you know what I'm saying, baby?”

Then, forlornly, Mr. Rahaman added: “Even though you probably don't want to marry me and you don't want to have kids. But it's all right. It's all right. It's no big deal. We're not going to talk about that now.” He pleaded guilty this month.

Over the objection of prisoners' groups and defense lawyers, the city jails changed policy in 2007 to permit the recording, which was already routine in some New York State and federal prisons. Installation of the digital system, which began with some recordings in 2008, was completed in 2010, said a spokesman for the city's Correction Department, Stephen Morello.

Queens prosecutors have often been among the first to embrace new ways of handling domestic violence cases, including working with the police a decade ago to use digital photographs that provided clearer images of injuries than did old instant photographs.

Defense lawyers around the city, including the lawyer for Mr. Khan, the meat-cleaver attacker, rail about prosecutors' use of the recordings. “The whole system is patently unfair,” Mr. Khan's lawyer, Warren M. Silverman, said. He called it a trap for men who were cut off from the world.

The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, argued, “There really is no issue of fairness.” He noted that inmates were told that their phone calls would be taped.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/26/nyregion/26tapes.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

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From ICE

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Georgia school teacher arrested for distributing child pornography

ROME, Ga. - Raymond "Robin" Watts, 55, of Kingston, Ga., appeared in federal court Thursday after being arrested for distribution and possession of child pornography by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations. (HSI)

Watts is a teacher at Mill Creek Middle School in Woodstock, Ga.

During the course of ICE HSI's ongoing child pornography investigation, special agents discovered that Watts might possess sexually explicit images of children, in particular, minor boys.

In early 2011, an undercover ICE HSI special agent made contact with Watts, which led to in-person meetings between Watts and the undercover agent. During one of their meetings, Watts provided numerous images of child pornography to the agent. After a search warrant was executed, Watts was found to have hundreds of sexually explicit images of children on his home computer.

"The sexual exploitation of children is a despicable crime, and it is especially alarming when it is perpetrated by someone in a position of trust," said Brock Nicholson, acting special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Atlanta. "Identifying and investigating those who victimize innocent children is one of our most important responsibilities."

Watts is scheduled to have his arraignment and bond hearing before a U.S. Magistrate Judge on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.

U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said, "The children in our community must be protected from those who would victimize them in child pornography. Although all child pornography cases are tragic because of their victims, this case was even more troubling because the defendant taught in a middle school where he had daily interaction with children. Our investigation into this matter is ongoing and we would encourage anyone with information to contact ICE or their local police."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill E. Steinberg is prosecuting the case.

The investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers, and foreign-national predators whose crimes make them deportable.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE . This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com .

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1102/110225rome.htm

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Former high school swim coach pleads guilty to child pornography

BOSTON - A North Attleboro, Mass., man, a former swim coach for the Attleboro YMCA and North Attleboro High School, has pleaded guilty in federal court of receipt and possession of child pornography following an investigation conducted jointly with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Timothy S. Kelly, 40, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns to four counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

At the plea hearing, the prosecutor told the court that if the case proceeded to trial, the government's evidence would have proven that Kelly used an online chat program to communicate with others and transmit pictures to them in real time. In chats from 2007 and 2008, Kelly received images of child pornography and discussed his sexual interest in girls between the ages of 8 and 13. During the execution of a federal search warrant at his residence, Kelly admitted to collecting and trading child pornography since 2003.

The images he received and possessed included prepubescent children engaged in multiple acts of sexually explicit conduct.

Judge Stearns scheduled sentencing for May 18, 2011. Kelly faces up to 20 years imprisonment for each count of receipt of child pornography and up to 10 years imprisonment for possession of child pornography, to be followed by up to a lifetime of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.

U. S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, Bruce M. Foucart, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Boston, and Chief Michael P. Gould Sr. of the North Attleboro Police Department made the announcement.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders and child sex traffickers. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 12,800 individuals.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE . This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com

In coordination with the Bristol County District Attorney's Office, this case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Yoon of Ortiz's Major Crimes Unit and Trial Attorney Bonnie Kane of the Department of Justice's Child Exploitation & Obscenity Section.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1102/110225boston.htm

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ICE operation in South Florida targeting at-large convicted criminal aliens nets 24 arrests

MIAMI - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) officers arrested 24 foreign nationals during a six-day enforcement action in South Florida targeting convicted criminal aliens identified in violation of U.S. immigration law.

The enforcement operation, which began Feb. 15 and ended on Thursday, Feb. 24, targeted at-large criminal aliens with convictions for drug trafficking, violent crimes and sex offenses.

Nineteen of the individuals had criminal records, including murder and drug trafficking, four were ICE fugitives with final orders of deportation and one had been previously deported.

"Arresting convicted criminals and immigration fugitives is a top priority for ICE ERO," said Marc Moore, field office director for ICE ERO in Miami. "Those who come to the United States to prey upon our neighbors and communities will be prosecuted for their crimes and ultimately returned to their home countries. The results of this and last week's operation demonstrate ICE's commitment to making our communities safer for everyone."

All 24 were arrested administratively for being in violation of immigration law, and all are being held in ICE custody pending immigration removal proceedings or removal from the United States.

The 24 alien arrests include 10 arrests in Miami-Dade County, four arrests in Broward County and 10 arrests in Monroe County. The overall criminal alien arrests include 20 men and four women, representing six different nations, including countries in Latin America, Asia, Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

ICE ERO officers arrested:

• A 35-year-old citizen and national of Colombia, residing in Broward County, Fla. He has a prior 2008 conviction in Palm Beach County, Fla. for domestic battery by strangulation.
  
  
• A 33-year-old citizen and national of Honduras, residing in Miami-Dade County, Fla. He has prior 2010 convictions in Miami-Dade County for murder, possession of a deadly weapon, aggravated battery, child abuse, causing great bodily harm and torture.
  
  
• A 44-year-old citizen and national of Honduras, residing in Miami, Fla. His prior criminal convictions in Miami-Dade County from 1990 to 2011 include simple assault, resisting officer without violence, cocaine possession, fleeing/eluding police officer, disorderly intoxication, carrying a concealed weapon, battery, drinking in public, trespassing, obstructing a police officer and cannabis possession. He illegally re-entered the United States after being deported in 1991.
  
  
• A 19-year-old citizen and national of Haiti, residing in Key West, Fla. He has a prior 2010 conviction in Monroe County for selling and possessing cocaine.
  
  
• A 35-year-old citizen and national of Haiti, residing in Key West. He has prior 2003 to 2010 convictions in Monroe County for cocaine distribution within 1000 feet of a church or school, battery and criminal mischief. He has also been identified as a member of the Zoe Pound gang in Key West.

Those who have outstanding orders of deportation, or who returned to the United States illegally after being deported, are subject to immediate removal from the country. The remaining individuals are in ICE custody awaiting a hearing before an immigration judge, or pending travel arrangements for removal in the near future.

This enforcement operation is just one facet of the Department of Homeland Security's broader strategy to heighten the federal government's effectiveness at identifying and removing dangerous criminal aliens from the United States.

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1102/110225miami.htm

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From the FBI

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Alleged Supporter of Terrorist Group Extradited from Paraguay

PHILADELPHIA—Moussa Ali Hamdan, 38, a dual citizen of the United States and Lebanon and a former resident of Brooklyn, New York, made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia today after being extradited from Paraguay. He is being held pending a detention hearing. Hamdan is among several defendants charged in a conspiracy to provide material support to Hizballah, a designated foreign terrorist organization. He was indicted November 24, 2009, along with nine co-defendants. Hamdan was taken into U.S. custody in Asuncion, Paraguay, on Thursday, by U.S. Marshals who escorted him to Washington, D.C., where members of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force took him into custody.

At the time of the indictment, Hamdan had left the United States. On June 15, 2010, Paraguayan authorities arrested him in the Tri-Border Area (TBA) of Paraguay for the crime of material support of terrorism.

Hamdan is charged in 28 of the 31 counts in the indictment, including conspiring to provide material support to Hizballah in the form of proceeds from the sale of counterfeit money, stolen (genuine) money, and fraudulent passports. According to the indictment, Hamdan and several other defendants were also charged with several counts of transporting stolen goods, trafficking in counterfeit goods, and making false statements to government officials.

According to a related criminal complaint Hamdan began purchasing purportedly stolen cellular telephones from a cooperating witness acting as an agent of the government and participated in the purchase and transportation of purportedly stolen goods on numerous occasions. These stolen goods included cellular telephones, laptop computers, Sony Play Station 2 systems, and automobiles, which the conspirators caused to be transported to destinations outside Pennsylvania, including overseas destinations such as Lebanon and Benin (Africa). Hamdan also allegedly bought counterfeit goods—namely, counterfeit Nike® shoes and Mitchell & Ness® sports jerseys—from the cooperating witness. The complaint details efforts by defendants Moussa Ali Hamdan and his co-defendants to sell the CW counterfeit United States currency for the purpose of raising funds for Hizballah. In total, the conspirators provided the CW with approximately $10,000 in counterfeit United States currency. The complaint also alleges that certain of Hamdan's co-defendants generated additional funds for Hizballah by selling fraudulent passports. The CW and the defendants participated in the purchase of two fake passports—one from the United Kingdom and one from Canada—for the benefit of Hizballah. Hamdan allegedly agreed to pay $10,000 towards the purchase of these passports, in order to satisfy a debt he owed to the CW.

If convicted of all charges, Hamdan faces a statutory maximum sentence of 260 years in prison.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Joint Terrorism Task Force, the New Jersey State Police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, the United States Secret Service, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Philadelphia Police Department, Department of Commerce, Office of Export Enforcement U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Federal Air Marshals, Pennsylvania State Police, and the Philadelphia Police Department.

It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Nancy Beam Winter and Vineet Gauri, and National Security Division Counterterrorism Section Trial Attorney Jolie F. Zimmerman.

The U.S. Attorney's Office would like to extend special thanks to the Paraguayan judicial and law enforcement authorities, including the U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay, for their invaluable assistance in the arrest and subsequent extradition of Hamdan, as well as the Office of International Affairs and U.S. Embassy, Asuncion, Diplomatic Security personnel who were involved in ensuring Hamdan's capture and return to the United States.

http://philadelphia.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel11/ph022511a.htm

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