Somali in custody in S. Texas charged with lying about terror ties
Posted on Saturday, March 06 @ 00:39:42 EST
Topic: Nuclear Threats Terrorists
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 A Somali man in custody in South Texas has been indicted on two counts of making false statements to federal agents about his affiliation with terror organizations and his entry into the U.S.
Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane, 24, has been in immigration custody since March 2008, when he turned himself in at Brownsville and asked for asylum.
Topics: Illegal immigration, Specially Designated Global Terrorist Groups, smuggled, false statements, Joint Terrorism Task Force
March 5, 2010
Guillermo Contreras
San Antonio Express News
The indictment, unsealed late Thursday, alleges that on Oct. 28, 2008, Dhakane omitted on his application for asylum that from before September 11, 2001, until January 2003, he was a member of, or was associated with, al-Barakat and Al-Ittihad Al-Islami.
Both organizations have been designated by the Treasury Department as Specially Designated Global Terrorist groups.
Al-Ittihad Al-Islami, for instance, is Somalia's largest terror organization, according to the Center for Defense Information.
The indictment also alleges Dhakane provided additional false information about how he entered the United States.
He claimed to authorities he and his wife traveled from Somalia to Mexico via Russia, Cuba, Costa Rica and Guatemala.
And he claimed that, while in Mexico, they traveled by bus to the U.S.-Mexico border, where they were smuggled illegally into the U.S.
The indictment alleges he failed to disclose to authorities that from June 2006 until March 2008, he resided in Brazil, where he participated in — and later ran — a large-scale human-smuggling enterprise.
Such a disclosure to authorities would prevent him from receiving asylum in the United States.
He was being held in an immigration jail in Pearsall when the false statements were made. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in federal prison on each of the two counts.
The case was investigated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Border Patrol and Homeland Security.
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