Thread: TX-Somali in custody charged with lying about terror ties

Web Posted: 03/05/2010 1:36 CST
Somali in custody in S. Texas charged with lying about terror ties

By Guillermo Contreras

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.

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.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_ ... arges.html

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Web Posted: 03/06/2010 6:24 CST
Somali man accused of smuggling East Africans through Texas
By Guillermo Contreras

A Somali man who allegedly has ties to terrorist groups is accused of smuggling, or trying to smuggle, through Texas several East Africans with similar affiliations.

A federal grand jury in San Antonio indicted Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane on Wednesday on two counts of making false statements to federal authorities.

Dhakane, 24, has been in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement since entering the U.S. through Brownsville in March 2008 and saying he wanted to seek asylum. He applied for asylum while in custody in October 2008.

The multiagency Joint Terrorism Task Force alleges he failed to disclose on his application that from before Sept. 11, 2001, through January 2003, he had been a member of the wire-transfer network Al-Barakat and an Islamic militant group in Somalia, Al-Ittihad Al-Islami (AIAI), both on the U.S. Treasury Department's list of Specially Designated Terrorist entities.

The indictment, made public Friday, also alleges he's known by 10 aliases, mischaracterized how he came into the United States and left out key details about his life in Brazil. It also alleges he failed to say he was part of and later ran a large-scale human-smuggling ring that smuggled, or tried to smuggle, hundreds of people from Brazil into the United States, among them “several AIAI-affiliated Somalis.â€