Undercover Federal Sting Busts NJ Shore Residents

http://www.mdcoastdispatch.com/article. ... 30&id=1432
By Shawn J. Soper, News Editor
Originally published September 21, 2007

SNOW HILL, NJ – Federal officials yesterday morning swarmed two businesses and a residence in Snow Hill in connection with a massive sting operation conducted over the last several months targeting 39 suspects involved in an extensive money laundering scheme involving funds the suspects thought were being diverted to terrorism operations and the bribing of immigration officials for illegal permanent resident cards.

Early yesterday morning, federal officials including the FBI and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raided two businesses in Snow Hill in connection with a months-long undercover sting operation targeting as many as 39 suspects. Raided were the Your Stop convenience store and the Chicken Man restaurant on West Market Street in Snow Hill as well as a private residence.

The raids were carried out shortly before U.S. District Court officials announced four indictments involving 39 defendants, many of whom were operating in Snow Hill, Ocean City and other locations on the lower Eastern Shore. The indictments arose from Operation Cash-Out, a months- long undercover sting investigation involving extensive international money laundering and bribery schemes. One of the indictments was connected to a suspect who allegedly attempted to conceal terrorist financing.

One of the four separate indictments specifically implicates several Snow Hill residents as well as residents of Salisbury and Parsonsburg. Two of the defendants named in the indictments issued in Baltimore yesterday owned and operated the two businesses targeted during yesterday’s raid in Snow Hill and other defendants worked in the businesses.

Mohammed Gujjar, a Pakistani native who is a naturalized U.S. citizen, has owned and operated the Your Stop Food Market in Snow Hill since 1995. Also named was Mohammed Ijaz, the brother of Gujjar, who has owned and operated the Chicken Man store in Snow Hill since 1993.

According to the indictments, an undercover operative working with FBI and ICE officials represented himself as the owner of an import-export business with ties to drug trafficking and the trafficking of illegal cigarettes. The undercover operative also told the defendants he had the capability of funneling funds to terrorism cells around the globe and also had the capability of funneling bribes to U.S. Immigration officials for illegal permanent residency cards, according to the formal indictment.

“Afridi Services, trading as Afridi Trading, was a fake import/export company utilized by an individual acting in an undercover capacity under the supervision of law enforcement agents with ICE and the FBI,â€