1st Terrorism Prosecution In The US! Operation Smokescreen! (Hezbollah Takedown)
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 27 minutes
Words per Minute
177.8984
Summary
In this episode, we cover the first successful terrorism prosecution in the United States of America. We cover the case of a former DEA agent who was involved in one of the biggest drug busts in the history of the Black family.
Transcript
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And we are live. What's up, guys? Welcome to FedIt. Today, we're going to do a special episode.
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It's going to be the first successful prosecution of terrorism in the United States.
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This is going to be a wild one, guys. Let's get into it.
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I was a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, okay, guys? HSI.
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The cases that I did mostly were human smuggling and drug trafficking.
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Dr. Lafredo confirmed lacerations due to stepping on glass.
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You can't reach him in his jacket. You don't know.
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You're facing two counts of two meditative murder.
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Young Slime Life here and after referred to as YSL.
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This is 6'9", and then this is Billy Seiko right here.
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Now, when they first started, guys, 6'9 ran with me.
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Get rapper Bush IC arrested after shooting at King of Diamonds, Miami strip club.
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This is the one that's going to fuck him up because this gun is not tracing.
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Here's your boy, 42 Doug, right here on the left.
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They can effectively link him to paying an underage girl.
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Suspect 2 set down a backstack on the site of the second explosion inspired by Al-Qaeda.
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Two terrorists, brothers, the Zokar Sarnab and Tamerlan Sarnab.
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When the cartel shipped drugs into the country.
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Trading secrets with the Russians for monetary compensation.
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Compensation, the largest corrupt police bust in New Orleans history.
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We're going to go over his past, the gang guy, so that this all makes sense.
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Angie doesn't know too much about this, so I just kind of sprung it on her.
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We literally just got done searching everywhere for the BMF documentary that we have.
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It's a good documentary, but the quality of it sucks, guys.
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So if any of you are able to get your hands, and the name of the documentary is BMF, The
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If any of you guys are able to get that to me in HD, let me know.
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I'll go ahead and share a screen with y'all real quick so you guys know what it's called.
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Honestly, it's probably better than the Starz remake that's going on right now.
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But this is it right now because the reason why I like this documentary so much is that
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it covers the DEA investigators that actually did this investigation.
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And I think that's very important from a knowledge standpoint to really understand
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This was a very complex drug investigation into the black mafia family.
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So if anybody's able to get this documentary for me, it's on YouTube, but it's in crappy
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quality, and I don't want to dilute the quality.
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If any of you are able to find it for me, let me know.
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But yeah, I'm going to keep working and try to find a better version of it.
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But in the meantime, guys, we are going to cover the first successful prosecution of terrorism
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in the United States associated to Hezbollah, okay?
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It's been a while since we've done a terrorism case.
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Party of Allah or Party of God also transliterated Hezbollah or Hezbollah, among others, is the
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Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group led by Secretary General Hassan
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Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the loyalty
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to the resistance bloc party in the Lebanese parliament.
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So we're going to be covering, guys, a documentary.
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And this is episode three, The Terrace Next Door.
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People on Donifield Drive may not have known who their neighbors were, but they knew something
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The scary part was to wake up in the morning and find out there was a terrorist cell operating
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Something illegal going on doesn't surprise me.
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But when you mention the word terrorism, I'm going, Lord have mercy.
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Hezbollah, prior to 9-11, killed more Americans than any terrorist organization.
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As soon as I saw that house, I knew something had to be.
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But these were the real guys, really bad guys before the 9-11 situation.
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And as you guys can see here, we got some history going on.
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So guys, as you guys know from watching this podcast, INS Immigration Naturalization Service
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And what they did was they enforced immigration violations, which what ended up happening was
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INS and the U.S. Customs Service combined to create one agency, which ended up becoming
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ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with two different components in it.
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One called Enforcement Removal Operations, ERO, who's responsible for deporting the actual
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Then you got the special agents who did criminal investigations.
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You have HSI that does the criminal cases nowadays.
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So basically, an INS special agent and a Customs special agent were merged into one agency.
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So that is the position I used to have when I was an agent myself.
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So INS is what we call a legacy agency because they no longer exist prior post 9-11.
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Then you can see here, obviously, FBI agent, DSS, Diplomatic Security Service.
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I can't see what his rage act is says, but you guys can see this was a case that involved
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Typically, when terrorism is involved, you got people from all branches of government working
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together, but this is pre-9-11, of course, shouting death to America and their scenes
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Their mission was to become a sleeper cell, to be activated if ordered to conduct an
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As a former FBI agent, it began its occupation of West Beirut early this morning, pushing rapidly
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with tanks at APCs deep into the Western sector.
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In 1982, in response to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, several militia groups formed together
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with the support of Iran to establish a legitimate political party called the Party of God, Hezbollah.
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They were able to bring water to the communities to establish hospitals and maintain some semblance
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In some ways, they are viewed as the savior of Lebanon, but their armed wing, Ansar Allah,
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the retainers of Allah, is an organized, disciplined, trained, and equipped fighting force.
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So you got a retired assistant special agent in charge here, guys, which let me rewind it
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This, I am almost certain this guy was a case agent on this investigation, but an assistant
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special agent in charge, just so you guys understand the hierarchy, one more time for all the new
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Then above that is something called a supervisory special agent.
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Then above that is an assistant special agent in charge, which is what this guy ended up
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And then you go into special agent in charge or SAIC is what the FBI calls it.
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So this guy was pretty much like two from the top when he retired, which is very high
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But obviously him talking about this investigation now, it was back when he was a regular agent
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carrying cases, because once you become a supervisory special agent or above guys, you no longer
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You're basically in a management slash support role for your agents.
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Disciplined, trained and equipped fighting force.
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We do first recognize that Hezbollah has a number of different dimensions to it.
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But the United States continues to be concerned about terrorist activities that go well beyond
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So on one hand, Hezbollah has a local identity as a legitimate political party in
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On the other hand, they're a proxy for the Iranian government.
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They're engaged in terrorist organizations and act as a militia at the behest of Iran.
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So as you guys can see, he was a retired special agent in charge.
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So he finished pretty much one tier above the other guy before he retired.
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Iran's sponsorship of Hezbollah is very comprehensive.
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It's providing weapons, training, intelligence, different types of covers.
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They view the United States as being the primary supporter of Israel and by extension, a legitimate
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And this is, you know, a little bit understated here, guys.
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This is a big problem why terrorists hate the United States in general.
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Let's just not, let's just, you know, keep it all the way 1,000 here.
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The United States support of Israel is a big reason why foreign terrorists from the Middle
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If it weren't for the United States, Israel probably would have been taken over because
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So the, that part of the world looks at the United States as an obstacle because they arm
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And they know that if they try to take back Israel, there's going to be some serious consequences
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So this is why the United States and countries that support Israel typically come under attack
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Prior to 9-11, no other terrorist group in the world killed more Americans than Hezbollah.
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The Marine Corps barracks bombing, 246 men killed.
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The American embassy bombing in Lebanon, a horrific, horrific attack.
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The hijacking of TWH flight 847, where a U.S. Navy diver was singled out and tortured to death
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They have established themselves on virtually every continent in the world.
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In Africa, in Europe, in North America, in South America, in Southeast Asia.
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Hezbollah, not being a nation, not being a state, has the ability to travel throughout the world
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Gaining all this combat experience and being directed, in many cases, by a country that
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has aspirations of becoming a nuclear power, it makes them extremely dangerous.
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In 1992, the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires was bombed by Hezbollah,
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followed by another attack on the Argentine-Israeli mutual...
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Yeah, they don't like them boys, if you know what I'm saying.
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I was on assignment in Latin America at the time.
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Children in the grade school next to the embassy were shredded with glass.
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And I saw that there had been sleeper agents in those locations.
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And so, when I became chief of the Hezbollah unit in the FBI, so I oversaw all counter-Hezbollah
00:12:03.560
My primary objective was to find out, are there Hezbollah sleeper cells in the United States?
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So, guys, sleeper cells are basically, you know, or a sleeper, in this case, would be
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someone that's embedded in a community that is waiting for orders to be reactivated by
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their original people from whatever foreign country or organization they're a part of to
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conduct criminal activity, and in this case, terrorist activity, in furtherance of that
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So, typically, they'll come into the United States, right, on a visa or come in legally
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some way, live in the, you know, embed themselves in community, live a completely normal life,
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don't put any suspicion on themselves, and then what they'll do is they'll get activated
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once their people back where they're from, right, or their country or whatever it is,
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organization, tells them you need to get active.
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And there's another example of this, which is another case I'll do for y'all, where there
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were sleeper cell spies in the United States from Russia.
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For 10 years, the FBI followed them around and couldn't get evidence on them, but they
00:13:06.640
were able to eventually get it, and these people had dug their talons so deep in the
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Like, they had driver's license, passports, they were naturalized citizens.
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Like, they totally sold being Americans, even though they ended up getting found out later
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But that's how deep a lot of these sleeper cells go to penetrate the United States, blend
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in, and then eventually carry out the attack when the time comes.
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Dangerous because they're well-concealed, and they fly below law enforcement radar.
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A sleeper cell is when foreign operators, could be a terrorist, it could be a spy, will embed
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They will join clubs, they will go to school, they'll get a driver's license, they'll get
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They take on all the appearances of being just another community member.
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They're sleepers because they're not committing the type of illegal activities that draw the
00:14:02.760
When actually they're establishing, and a lot of the times, they don't break laws at all to
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The capability to conduct espionage or conduct...
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Okay, as you guys can see here, this clip right here is from that case I told you about
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This is two Russians meeting in the United States who are U.S. citizens, etc., but they
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But this is a perfect example from that case I told you about before.
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In early 1995, an individual had run afoul of Hezbollah and was afraid that he would be
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And so he walked in an American embassy and said, listen, I need some protection.
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And he reported that a dangerous Hezbollah operative was currently living in Charlotte,
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You would never think of a place like Charlotte for a sleeper cell to be operating.
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Mind you, this case went down back in like the late 80s, 90s.
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And this documentary, I think, came out like 2000...
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So the fact that it's still classified to this day speaks volumes.
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With this information, I contacted the Charlotte office and they initiated an investigation on
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They started coming across more individuals in Charlotte working together.
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And as we got more intelligence from overseas, we started seeing that this could be a Hezbollah
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You know, middle of the road American city that people don't really know about and or care
00:16:06.020
When the vacancy for the terrorism supervisor in North Carolina opened up, I applied for a
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There was skepticism on the part of our headquarters and everyone kind of chuckled because terrorism
00:16:27.640
A big reason why, you know, 9-11 went down is because the FBI didn't take terrorism seriously.
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And I know some of you guys out there that say, oh, 9-11 was an inside job, etc.
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Here's the thing that I'm going to do a whole episode of Ryan Dawson on this about 9-11.
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The conclusion was, even though higher powers in the United States more than likely knew
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what was going on and there was other people involved, which I can't talk about right now,
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And the FBI was actually trying to catch these guys.
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The problem is that the CIA did not share the information.
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And the Bureau didn't prioritize terrorism enough back then to, how do I say this, to
00:17:05.260
warrant CIA sharing information, if that makes sense.
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Yes, they were the lead agency on terrorism back then, but it didn't become their top,
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top priority where they drop everything else until after 9-11.
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He used to be the Hezbollah chief, and now he's saying, oh, they're right here in my backyard.
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Back then, the FBI was more concerned with the Mafia, the organized crime in La Cosa Nostra.
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In early 1995, an individual reported that a dangerous and trained Hezbollah operative
00:17:47.240
was currently living in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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Mohammed Hamoud was young, handsome, charismatic.
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His father had been killed by the Israeli Defense Force.
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And he had familial connections with Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.
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The Charlotte office started looking at this individual to find out, did Hezbollah have sleeper
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Were they collecting intelligence for an attack?
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For many years, Mohammed Hamoud attempted to get a visa to travel from Lebanon to the United States.
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The consular officer that took his request smelled a rat.
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So, Hamoud and his two cousins, the Darwish's, travel to Venezuela and they spend about 40 days on Margarita Island.
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And they obtained some really poor fake visas that they know when they get to JFK.
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This is quite shocking now because visas are very difficult to get now.
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This is pre-9-11 though, so probably way, you know.
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And asylum guys is pretty much, you know, when you say, oh, I fear for my life.
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And it's pretty much a green ticket to stay in the United States, assuming you're able to prove that fear is legit.
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But a lot of the times, people stay in asylum for a long period of time in the United States without ever really getting a decision.
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So, it's very difficult for them to turn you back when you're able to show even just a little bit of evidence that you'll be killed if you're returned.
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He's out to do what he does as a Hezbollah operative here in the United States.
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There's another Hezbollah member already in Charlotte, North Carolina, and his name, Saeed Harb.
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He came to Charlotte from Lebanon in 1988, a wheeler, dealer, very astute with criminal activity.
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And he was engaged in such a broad range of criminality.
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Everything from visa fraud, marriage fraud, identity theft.
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And these crimes, by the way, that they're mentioning right now, are all immigration crimes, which makes sense why that INS.
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Why that INS special agent was involved in this case that you guys saw from the beginning.
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This is why I used to investigate when I was an agent myself.
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And look, you guys could see all the licenses, credit cards, etc.
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My man was out here scamming in the 90s before that thing was cool to do, man.
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So Hamoud and his cousins come down to Charlotte where they took jobs at dominance.
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They wanted you to believe that they were here just looking for a better life.
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And Saeed convinced each of them to pay an American woman to marry them so that they could obtain a green card.
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And guys, the fastest path to getting a green card in the United States is by far marrying someone who's a USC or a U.S. citizen.
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All you basically got to do is marry that individual, show proof of the marriage, and wait it out for two years.
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And then from there, you can adjust your status and become a U.S. citizen.
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Dancers in Charlotte area, strip clubs, and then their Domino's coworkers.
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The concept here is that you think you're just dealing with an immigrant seeking residency.
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You have no idea you're dealing with a terrorist.
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You know, I come here to Charlotte looking at this cell.
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And we started getting a picture of eight core Hezbollah operatives.
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Each one of these cell members was battle-hardened but engaging in low-level criminal activity.
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You guys are going to notice it has those government exhibit pictures.
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These pictures all demonstrate, guys, that these individuals were involved with a foreign paramilitary group
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that doesn't necessarily see eye-to-eye with American policy and or laws,
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which, you know, obviously adds to the charge of material support for a terrorist organization.
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So that's why you see these pictures being shown with government exhibit stickers on them.
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And I knew that all it would take would be some action in the world against Iran.
00:23:01.700
It could be something that occurs in the Middle East or Asia.
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But in order to retaliate, Hezbollah could order an attack in the United States.
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Now you see why sleeper cells can be so dangerous.
00:23:16.780
They could tell them, hey, we need you to, you know, go do X, Y, Z, blow this up, blah, blah, blah.
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They're right in place and they have the ability to do so almost without being caught
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because they pretty much acclimated to the society and they have status now in the U.S.
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I bring it to my fellow supervisors in the office saying, can you help me investigate these crimes?
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I want to be able to have some kind of leverage to arrest them, to put pressure on them.
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I was initially skeptical that Charlotte, North Carolina, would be some hotbed for a terrorist organization like Hezbollah.
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And I thought, well, maybe we're just trying to be relevant here.
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Maybe we're trying too hard to be considered an important field office.
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And they say, Bob, the FBI does not investigate or pursue such a low-level crime.
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Before 9-11 and before the Patriot Act, there was a strict wall between criminal and intelligence investigators.
00:24:14.040
Okay, and I've broken this down on other episodes, guys, real fast.
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Criminal cases is building a case with evidence that you can actually use in court, not classified information, all right, to arrest someone.
00:24:29.560
And this is why I've, you know, you guys know I've been fairly critical of the FBI.
00:24:33.780
It wears an intelligence hat while also being a law enforcement agency.
00:24:36.540
And that's very difficult to do because both missions are kind of productive against each other.
00:24:42.140
In the intel world, you're gathering information by any means necessary, whether it's waterboarding somebody or, you know, interviewing foreign contacts, whatever it is, right?
00:24:51.680
You're just trying to get evidence, not evidence, excuse me, information, regardless of how you get it, by the way, to put the United States in a better position to be able to deal with their adversaries with knowledge.
00:25:00.980
On the law enforcement side, you're gathering criminal, you're doing a criminal investigation and gathering evidence that's going to be shown in a courtroom, okay, that has to be obtained legally and be done in a certain procedure with the U.S. Attorney's Office co-signed.
00:25:16.380
So it's a lot stricter on this law enforcement side to build a case versus on the intel side, it's kind of the Wild West.
00:25:27.820
So that's kind of the strange situation that FBI often finds itself in because you can't do both well because doing one of them, right, well, automatically impedes your ability to do the other better, if that makes sense.
00:25:47.000
Ain't nobody going to be able to give you guys that type of breakdown when it comes to knowledge in law enforcement because I've done both.
00:25:51.840
Back in the 70s, the FBI had its wings clipped.
00:25:54.800
The legislature and the country said, we don't want you to be spying on people in the United States.
00:26:00.280
Intelligence cases are entirely separate from criminal cases.
00:26:04.520
The intelligence side was to gather information, not to gather evidence, not to put people in jail.
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We were addressing terrorism like we did spies.
00:26:15.880
There was no policy to break these cells up, but we had to find some way to pursue them.
00:26:21.920
And that's the issue because when you're dealing with spies, their job is to not bring any attention to themselves, gather information, give it back to their handler, and, you know, continue things going.
00:26:31.980
The last thing they want to do is, you know, do an attack and have everybody look at them.
00:26:35.980
However, with these terrorists, you have to be more aggressive because they are looking to do something if the time comes.
00:26:41.960
So this is why, right, this is kind of faulty from the Bureau, applying a spy investigation to a terrorist organization puts you in a very bad position and can compromise you because you're basically in the reaction phase where you're waiting for them to do an attack.
00:26:58.880
And that, we saw what ended up happening with that, with the terrorist attack that occurred, whether it's the Boston Marathon bombing, 9-11, et cetera.
00:27:06.300
One night, I was finishing up some work very late in the office.
00:27:13.180
I went outside my office and saw an agent there doing some paperwork.
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I'd spent the first 11 years of my FBI career working criminal cases.
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Despite the fact that I'd been an intelligence officer in the Army, had traveled extensively throughout the Middle East, had Arabic language training, the Bureau put me to work on criminal squads.
00:27:35.360
Because Rick Schwein had just come off of a very successful motorcycle gang investigation and prosecution.
00:27:43.200
Which, by the way, I will be doing Hells Angels for you guys as well.
00:27:46.400
I've been researching the Hells Angels and the Banditos, et cetera.
00:27:49.840
So motorcycle gangs are definitely going to be featured on this podcast as well.
00:27:59.300
We don't put our makeup on and talk about serial killers all day.
00:28:01.660
We talk about all different types of crimes for y'all.
00:28:05.360
This is exactly how I viewed this Hezbollah cell.
00:28:08.580
All the things we see in a terrorist cell, you see in an outlaw motorcycle gang.
00:28:13.220
And that's why I needed an agent who understood both worlds.
00:28:20.260
These guys are committing all these different crimes and we can prove the enterprise.
00:28:24.540
His expertise was cases involving racketeering-influenced corrupt organizations.
00:28:28.760
It's called RICO cases in which you group together individuals and prosecute them in that manner.
00:28:34.680
These people were affiliated because of their membership in Hezbollah.
00:28:38.780
And because they were engaged in criminality, they were vulnerable to the use of criminal
00:28:44.240
statutes, too, including the racketeering statutes.
00:28:47.680
And remember, guys, they were doing a whole bunch of crimes like marriage fraud, credit
00:28:52.900
These are all crimes that could be constituted as racketeering activity within the confinements
00:28:58.360
of the RICO laws, which if you guys want more breakdown on RICO laws, watch the K-Flock
00:29:03.200
I go into real intimate detail with how RICO cases work and how they're able to prosecute
00:29:11.020
The RICO law was like, it was made back in the 1970s.
00:29:19.540
But it's interesting that they're actually trying to do it here on a terrorism case.
00:29:24.060
...heal because in no other manner could we attack them except through criminal prosecution.
00:29:31.660
Also, I want to make a very important distinction here.
00:29:33.660
Guys, remember, at this point, there was no formal terrorism charge that had been actually
00:29:44.380
So that's why they're going the RICO route because prior to the whole 9-11 shebang, et
00:29:49.440
cetera, people didn't really normally charge material support for terrorism, which is the
00:29:53.820
main charge that the FBI goes for whenever they catch someone who's committing terrorist
00:30:04.520
They'll no longer ever have the chance to set that bomb off in the United States.
00:30:09.400
To investigate the breadth of their criminal activity, we put together what I call a de
00:30:21.840
So we effectively developed this network to counter the Hezbollah network.
00:30:27.380
From the Diplomatic Security Service, from the Immigration and Naturalization Service, from
00:30:32.020
the Charlotte Police Department to all lend their jurisdiction into a common effort.
00:30:37.480
Our goal was to not only penetrate the cell, but to dismantle it and to tell Hezbollah,
00:30:42.800
we know who you are, we know who you are, and you will not be able to do that here.
00:30:53.820
The Charlotte-Hezbollah case began in earnest in March of 1997.
00:30:59.620
The Charlotte cell was made up of eight Hezbollah operatives sent here to support Hezbollah and
00:31:06.560
to be activated, if and when ordered to, to carry out a terrorist attack.
00:31:11.640
So we had assembled our de facto joint terrorism task force.
00:31:16.820
We're working together to further develop this terrorism investigation.
00:31:23.940
It's a manpower-intensive effort to conduct a physical surveillance of a terrorism target.
00:31:29.740
A number of people doing different things in order to stay on a target and not get exposed.
00:31:36.960
One of the things we did was to rent the house across the street from Mohammed Hamoud.
00:31:42.920
We needed FBI agents portraying themselves as a young married couple to monitor that.
00:31:56.120
So, you know, they were still trying pretty hard.
00:31:58.080
But nowadays, if you had something like this today, the FBI would go be even more on it.
00:32:03.300
These are the super power puff guys of the FBI.
00:32:10.680
This is probably the biggest case in the office.
00:32:14.680
Because this is a very small field office down there in Charlotte.
00:32:17.320
To find out who's coming in there, at what time, what's happening there.
00:32:22.860
Mohammed Hamoud was sort of the spiritual leader and had grown up in South Lebanon and knew the Hezbollah leadership.
00:32:33.120
And every Thursday night, he would have a gathering at his home.
00:32:36.320
These Thursday night meetings were not just core cell members, just like biker gangs, they had hangarounds.
00:32:42.300
And they would come and Mohammed Hamoud would preach to them.
00:32:45.800
And he was almost a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality.
00:32:49.720
He was a really low-key, polite young man on one hand.
00:32:54.660
And then at the prayer meetings, he would get fired up and he would be the motivational speaker.
00:32:59.480
He would show speeches by Hezbollah leadership.
00:33:03.260
He would show videos of Hezbollah operations overseas.
00:33:07.960
And they would cheer as these attacks were depicted on their propaganda videos, killing Americans, killing people.
00:33:17.620
Did you have someone on the inside of yourself?
00:33:24.540
After this hour had passed, of course, a lot of people would leave.
00:33:30.960
And then they would start talking about their activities.
00:33:34.280
With Hezbollah, the marquee activities are bombing buildings and airplanes and high-profile attacks.
00:33:42.620
What we don't pay much attention to is how do they fund themselves?
00:33:48.640
They're generating income, operating businesses, blending in.
00:33:52.240
And they use that money to finance terrorism against us.
00:33:59.140
But the brains behind this entire conspiracy, this entire operation, it's Saeed Harb.
00:34:05.780
So Saeed Harb, one of the things that he really got good at was adopting people's identities.
00:34:12.040
He would make friends with people in the community in Charlotte.
00:34:15.600
And they would go back to their country of origin.
00:34:18.400
And before they went back, he'd say, hey, can I get your driver's license?
00:34:21.000
And then he would basically adopt that identity and get a North Carolina driver's license in that name.
00:34:26.540
And he had, you know, seven or eight identities like that.
00:34:29.420
His phone would ring different ways depending on which identity he was being called on.
00:34:47.280
With that identity, they would apply and obtain credit cards.
00:34:52.180
They would then charge each one of these to its maximum amount, purchasing cigarettes at one of the warehouses here.
00:35:08.600
Whereas in the northern states, they were taxed at up to $13 a carton.
00:35:13.140
They would drive these cigarettes, a complete truckload, to Detroit or New York where they would sell them to these small mom-and-pop shops.
00:35:22.920
Now, this is a crime and a scheme, guys, that not many people do anymore.
00:35:26.640
But it's extremely lucrative if you can pull it off.
00:35:30.360
And law enforcement doesn't really care about it.
00:35:32.080
So cigarette smuggling, as you guys are seeing right here, is actually fairly popular.
00:35:38.840
But the thing is, is that it goes under the radar most of the time because most agencies don't want to spend their time working it.
00:35:45.420
They don't get, you know, big, long, sexy sentences that prosecutors like.
00:35:49.540
So this is a crime that kind of flies under the radar.
00:35:51.760
But then again, that's why these guys are smart.
00:35:54.360
They were involved in crimes that people don't really care.
00:35:57.020
Like these federal agencies don't really care about like that.
00:36:02.600
I mean, hell, cigarette smuggling, like most people don't even know if that's really illegal.
00:36:13.260
So there were a number of traffic stops where police officers in different states would stop these people with a van load of cigarettes.
00:36:22.540
The cell members were afraid they were being profiled as Arab males.
00:36:27.100
They hired females to drive these cigarettes up to Michigan.
00:36:32.520
Saeed Harb was very good at recruiting females to drive for the group because he's just a charismatic guy.
00:36:45.120
Hey, I need you to drive these cigarettes to New York, bitch.
00:36:47.220
And that's how a lot of women got sucked into making the smuggling runs.
00:36:54.240
Like, you're sitting there working at fucking Domino's or something.
00:37:02.680
I need you to go ahead and get these cigarettes, all right?
00:37:11.020
He would just be like, yo, I need you to drive this truck to XYZ.
00:37:17.900
You know, to drive to New York, whatever, with this, like...
00:37:50.140
And this is just one of their criminal schemes.
00:37:57.060
They then use this money to purchase a pizza franchise, a house painting business, a used
00:38:03.180
car lot, a gas station, where they can launder these funds.
00:38:07.680
Not only that, if they need more money, they commit insurance fraud.
00:38:11.540
We know that they intentionally set fire to a pizza business they had for more money.
00:38:17.180
So when you look at this case in its pieces, it's cigarette smuggling, so what?
00:38:26.760
$30,000, guys, in 97 is the equivalent purchasing power.
00:38:36.140
So they were doing this three to four times a week.
00:39:04.240
These guys right here are smuggling cigarettes and using chicks to do it.
00:39:10.480
It allows this organization to fly below the radar.
00:39:15.120
But when you realize that you're dealing with terrorists, that they're going to exploit
00:39:19.360
this innocuous criminal activity with lethal effectiveness, it changes the entire perspective
00:39:26.100
They're taking the proceeds from these crimes and sending it to a terrorist organization
00:39:30.280
that prior to 9-11 killed more Americans than any terrorist organization.
00:39:35.740
We continued to watch them for a long period of time without moving against them to ensure
00:39:42.960
My concern was that sleeper cells could be activated to conduct an attack based on something
00:39:50.780
When you're trained to think in terms of worst case, worst case is an attack in the homeland.
00:39:56.100
We knew that this cell had weapons, and they were conducting firearms practice with handguns
00:40:08.360
They'd been trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
00:40:11.900
They'd served in militias where they got combat experience.
00:40:19.100
In any criminal investigation, you're investigating a bike.
00:40:21.720
If these guys were studying these people, they were living in front of their house, and they
00:40:29.880
were researching and doing all the investigation, why?
00:40:34.220
They'd be knowing that they'd be doing these things, these trips and everything, and it's
00:40:43.980
The reason why is because they wanted to build up the terrorism charge first so that they
00:40:49.040
So they will let them do it until they get worse and worse and worse?
00:40:53.780
That's a really good question because I've been in a situation like this where you're
00:40:56.760
investigating an individual, and you know he's involved in more serious crimes, but
00:41:02.020
the only thing you know that you can prove right now is a very lesser crime.
00:41:05.660
But you don't want him to stop doing the big crime so that you can actually prosecute
00:41:10.480
Because if they take him down for the cigarettes, dude, they might get a year probation.
00:41:16.820
So they're looking at it like, yeah, we could take him down.
00:41:24.500
They're going to know that the FBI is looking at them, so they're going to stop talking to
00:41:35.380
So like when you got petty crimes like this, it's okay to let it kind of keep going.
00:41:38.720
As long as like no one's in danger, it is what it is.
00:41:48.900
In federal investigations, you have to be patient.
00:41:59.660
And this is something that I noticed when I was a Fed, guys.
00:42:02.040
This is something that state and locals don't really understand like that.
00:42:04.760
So when the Fed's coming, we're trying to do big, complex investigations.
00:42:07.620
A lot of the times, like the state and locals, you know, they'll want to just take them down
00:42:12.960
Oh, we caught them with like, you know, an ounce of dope.
00:42:16.300
It's better to let them walk, figure out where they're going to go next after the criminal
00:42:19.820
activity, identify the organization, and then take everyone down in one hole.
00:42:23.580
But a lot of the times, it'll occur where state and locals want to take it down early.
00:42:28.320
And that's why I told you all before, it's so important to work with the state and locals
00:42:31.800
Because let's say you're looking at a guy that they're also looking at.
00:42:35.000
And that guy, to their knowledge, only sells gram levels of, you know, drugs.
00:42:39.180
However, you meet with those state and locals, you share information with them, and you tell
00:42:43.200
I know you guys are looking to arrest him, but let's hold off because I know he's tied
00:42:50.260
And then bam, nine out of 10 times when you work with the state agency and tell them, hey,
00:42:53.560
I want to bring y'all on board, let's work this together, they'll forego whatever they
00:42:59.700
The worst thing you could do is say, yo, don't take it down.
00:43:04.920
Then they're going to take it down and say, screw you.
00:43:08.020
So this is the importance of having state and locals on your team, working with them.
00:43:11.720
And if you do identify the same target through something called deconfliction, right, there's
00:43:15.840
a whole database where, you know, you call in, oh, this is my guy.
00:43:18.300
And then they, that's a whole other story for y'all.
00:43:20.600
If y'all guys want me to break a deconfliction another day, I can.
00:43:23.960
But for the purposes of this podcast, it's very important to build a case, work with the
00:43:30.220
state and locals so that they don't prematurely stop the case and you all work together and
00:43:35.100
get the arrest at the end and get a, you know, a big roundup.
00:43:39.000
Because that's a win for the state and locals too.
00:43:40.620
You know, they like being involved in big federal cases.
00:43:42.820
It's just that they might not know all the time.
00:43:46.200
When we investigated this case, we started talking to other agencies and I found out that
00:43:51.080
ATF had this ready to go cigarette smuggling case.
00:43:58.520
You got a federal agency looking at these guys for the cigarettes.
00:44:02.620
The backhoe and firearms had expended several years doing traffic stops and gathering evidence.
00:44:08.460
This is much bigger than a cigarette smuggling case.
00:44:14.300
So guys, deconfliction is basically when, when I was in Texas, the way it works is, and I'm
00:44:20.360
not going to go into super, super detail because this is somewhat law enforcement sensitive.
00:44:23.620
So I'm just going to give y'all the general of it.
00:44:26.500
So let's say I'm working a case as a federal agent, someone else working a case as a state
00:44:31.680
Another guy's working a case for FBI, blah, blah, blah.
00:44:34.940
You would call this intermediary service and put your guy in the database, right?
00:44:44.520
Then another agency, because all the agencies use this same one intermediary, calls this
00:44:49.540
person and says, yo, I want to put this guy in the database.
00:44:52.320
If there's a match, like you put them in and then two days later, someone else puts them
00:44:55.780
in, what ends up happening is you get an email.
00:44:58.740
Such and such individual queried your target through this intermediary service, right?
00:45:04.120
And they'll put his number and his email there, right?
00:45:08.780
So then if someone queries one of your guys and you get that deconfliction hit, the thing
00:45:13.240
you should do immediately is call that guy and be like, hey, listen, bro, I work for
00:45:22.540
And then at that point, right, depending on how forthcoming the agent is or whatever it
00:45:25.820
may be, and you always have to be super plain cordial when you do this, they'll disclose
00:45:32.940
Because a lot of times people put their informants in there to protect them, to make sure no law
00:45:36.000
enforcement agents are looking at their sources or to target that they're trying
00:45:39.440
And that's where you, hey, is this your source?
00:45:43.820
They're like, yeah, no, we're working this guy.
00:45:45.100
We're looking at him for, you know, selling drugs.
00:45:48.160
And then you're like, oh, well, we're looking at him for fraud, actually.
00:45:57.340
Because you ain't going to get this information anywhere else, right?
00:46:01.260
Let's, you know, have a meeting and kind of deconflict and work the case together.
00:46:04.600
And that's a lot of times how partnerships are made.
00:46:07.480
Now, back in 1997, I doubt that they had something like this back then.
00:46:12.740
So that is why they didn't find out till way later on that the ATF had already had a case
00:46:21.240
Agencies did not work together like that, the same way they do today.
00:46:25.940
So it's very common in the government for people to be like, no, it's my case.
00:46:37.380
I find out that the ATF is about to make arrests, which would completely destroy what
00:46:45.740
And the ATF has no idea that these guys are terrorists.
00:46:58.300
And I went to Bob and I said, hey, they're getting ready to indict this.
00:47:02.320
When he says indict, that means they're going to get ready to charge and arrest the guys,
00:47:10.680
Right now, listening to this documentary and watching it brings back so many memories, man.
00:47:18.560
I can't tell you guys how many times I've been investigating an individual.
00:47:24.020
I get that email, such and such query to your target, or you're at the U.S. attorney's
00:47:28.340
office and they're like, wait, you're investigating this guy?
00:47:30.800
This agent from this other agency is investigating this guy too, blah, blah, blah.
00:47:33.740
And then it's that back and forth like, yo, please don't indict your case.
00:47:39.900
Most of the time, people were always cool to me.
00:47:44.100
Hey, dude, I know you got your case going, blah, blah, blah.
00:47:47.460
I guarantee you we can build a way bigger and better case if we share our information.
00:47:52.600
And nine out of 10 times, they'll want to cooperate.
00:47:54.760
But I've been in this situation right now where these agents are talking about where
00:48:02.540
You guys are going to see what they end up doing here.
00:48:06.140
And the U.S. attorney's office, guys, is the federal prosecutor.
00:48:13.080
The ATF had this cigarette smuggling investigation in our office.
00:48:17.000
That guy that just spoke was the U.S. attorney on this case or the AUSA.
00:48:24.060
And right away, it's like, oh, here comes the FBI swooping in to take our case.
00:48:29.280
Before I say anything more, everyone in this room is going to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
00:48:41.440
I think that's the first time in my then 15 years of being a prosecutor that I'd ever had to do that.
00:48:47.740
Bob had him sign nondisclosure agreements because we were going to brief him on the intelligence case.
00:48:52.740
Bro, literally, just put this in your head, guys.
00:48:55.940
You find out that your targets, who you think are terrorists, are about to meet with the U.S. attorney
00:49:00.260
and start the indictment paperwork to arrest them.
00:49:03.360
Next thing you know, you got like three ATF agents in there and the prosecutor.
00:49:07.120
Okay, so we're thinking about indicting this on Thursday.
00:49:10.480
Who's going to come in and, you know, provide the testimony, blah, blah, blah.
00:49:12.960
Yeah, well, we could, you know, schedule the arrest for like a week or two from now.
00:49:16.460
You know, Christmas around the corner or whatever.
00:49:21.020
And they break it to the U.S. attorney's office.
00:49:26.420
All of you are going to sign a nondisclosure agreement right now.
00:49:33.080
You're going to sign this nondisclosure agreement right now.
00:49:35.160
Do all of you guys have a top secret clearance?
00:49:41.380
I can only imagine like the look on the ATF agents' faces and the U.S.
00:49:51.820
So they started walking us through essentially the case that the ATF had been working on with the cigarette smuggling.
00:49:57.780
Several slides of surveillance and some of the evidence had been gathered.
00:50:00.920
And the U.S. attorney and I were both, you know, where is this going?
00:50:03.620
And I say, this is not a tobacco tax evasion scheme.
00:50:07.060
They put a slide up on the screen of eight men and said there's a Hezbollah sale in Charlotte.
00:50:18.580
So when he gave that presentation to Ken and the U.S. attorney, it was compelling.
00:50:29.200
So anytime you got a big case, guys, it's about selling the case to the prosecutor's office.
00:50:36.640
And 99% of the time, if your case isn't spoken about in a certain way, they don't see that passion.
00:50:43.660
They don't see that you really know what the hell you're talking about, that you're not squared away.
00:50:46.520
You're not able to cross T's and dot I's and know what's going on.
00:50:51.300
So a lot of you guys ask me, Martin, how do you have such like good public speaking skills?
00:50:59.400
I can't tell you how many times I went to U.S. attorney's office, got to present my case because I need funding or I need more help.
00:51:04.620
I need more assistance. Investigations are very expensive.
00:51:07.320
You need to be able to articulate why you need the resources, the money, the manager backing, the travel money, whatever it is to get this investigation done.
00:51:16.340
So if you're able to present a case properly, you're going to get the resources you need.
00:51:22.100
So shout out to the other agent for being able to go in there and give a presentation to kind of put everyone on notice that, yo, this is bigger than all of us.
00:51:30.440
I leaned over to the U.S. attorney and I said, I think I'll take this one.
00:51:36.640
Yeah, of course, that's a career maker case, man.
00:51:40.500
Kenville was the chief of prosecuting criminal investigations in the Western District of North Carolina.
00:51:46.240
I met with the ATF agents and said, we're going to have to slow down indictments in this case.
00:51:50.280
And I can't tell you why right now, but they were unaware that the people they were investigating were Hezbollah.
00:51:59.620
OK, so they kicked those ATF agents out now then.
00:52:02.280
Or maybe they showed up when the ATF agents weren't there and told them what was really going on.
00:52:06.800
Immediately established liaison with the Department of Justice.
00:52:09.840
We had meetings in D.C. to discuss the investigation.
00:52:13.180
And I think it was at one of those meetings that somebody just said to me, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has an investigation related to this.
00:52:20.280
And they have information that would be of great interest to you.
00:52:26.360
When other country intelligence agencies come and give you information, that's when you know you're on the right track.
00:52:37.280
And so I said, well, I guess we should go to Ottawa and meet with them and ask them what they have that would be of interest to me.
00:52:42.160
So several of us, including Rick Schwein, took that trip to Ottawa to meet with CSIS, Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which is sort of there at CIA.
00:52:52.180
That began a very long dance with Canadian authorities at very high levels.
00:52:57.840
It was like, yeah, we're willing to listen to you, but we don't want to give up our sources and methods.
00:53:02.600
They had a guy, their head legal guy, his name was Mike, and he's this big, burly Canadian guy.
00:53:07.640
And he's a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police, just a bearer of a man.
00:53:12.800
So we're Royal Canadian Mounted Police guys is the RCMP.
00:53:28.880
Mike out of nowhere goes, I'm going to get a smoke.
00:53:41.580
And Ken Bell was sitting across the table from me.
00:53:44.180
And I kicked him under the table and I said, Ken, go smoke with him.
00:53:48.600
I wasn't really much of a smoker, but I said, OK, I'll go.
00:53:54.140
But they had a rooftop conversation and things changed right after that.
00:54:00.020
Hey, the one time that smoking a cigarette actually goes to your benefit.
00:54:06.640
And I said, well, Mike, we want to take CSIS's holdings and take them into a federal courtroom
00:54:19.460
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service had been.
00:54:25.260
Like this is the importance, guys, of building relationships, whether it's law enforcement,
00:54:33.120
It truly is who you know and how polite you are and being able to give people something of
00:54:39.960
And this is, you know, the epitome of working together with other agencies and making sure
00:54:47.280
I'm sure that the U.S. gave them a bunch of information on individuals that could be
00:54:53.040
So this is the game when you're playing at this level.
00:54:55.100
I've been conducting surveillance on Saeed Harb and watched him cross into Canada because
00:55:01.780
the Canadians had this other cell in Vancouver.
00:55:05.140
Saeed's best friend, Mohamed Dabouk, was the leader of the Canadian cell.
00:55:11.100
And Dabouk had volunteered to be a suicide bomber several times.
00:55:14.920
And he had produced all these combat videos of martyrdom operations.
00:55:19.440
The Canadians had surveilled Harb in Canada, and he had provided Dabouk with alias identifications
00:55:29.720
And that was to help facilitate the purchase of dual-use equipment that they couldn't get
00:55:34.140
access to or weren't being given access to in Lebanon and Iran.
00:55:41.840
Things like night vision goggles, they can be used for benign purposes.
00:55:45.260
They can be used for military purposes to kill people.
00:55:59.140
Some of the stuff that they were getting looked like they were trying to build a remotely piloted
00:56:04.680
And then ultimately, we know, in 2006, Hezbollah successfully used drones against the Israelis.
00:56:11.300
Once the Canadians agreed to share their information, it completely changed the dynamic of the case.
00:56:16.640
And the reason for that is it really paints the global reach of Hezbollah.
00:56:21.560
Yeah, that's a big find for the FBI because now they can articulate that they got a transnational
00:56:30.740
So tell me that's not going to make headlines and put the U.S.
00:56:33.480
attorney's office on notice to take this thing to the furthest level.
00:56:36.160
The cell in North Carolina would send money to Canada.
00:56:41.120
The Hezbollah cell there would purchase these items and then transship them to Hezbollah in
00:56:47.760
And Canadian surveillance picked up Hassan Halou Lakis, the head of Hezbollah's procurement
00:56:52.960
operations globally, directing the boot to obtain this equipment.
00:56:57.340
You've got a cell in North Carolina, a cell in Canada.
00:57:00.700
You've got key players in Hezbollah and Lebanon directing these activities.
00:57:11.760
So you had this statute that was on the books that gave you a tool to go after these
00:57:20.240
This statute called a material support statute makes it illegal to assist a designated terrorist
00:57:27.560
group with something of a material nature of money, weapons, dual use equipment.
00:57:33.680
Providing support to a terrorist organization is the same as being a terrorist.
00:57:38.020
And in this case in particular, this eight member terrorism financing cell could become
00:57:42.880
a bomb throwing terrorist cell with the flip of a switch.
00:57:46.600
So one of the things that became very apparent was a desire by the United States government
00:57:52.800
to test the statute, to make a material support case against a terrorist organization.
00:57:57.600
And headquarters wanted the material support statute to be used as a vital tool in our fight
00:58:03.500
against terrorism, but they had to show it to work.
00:58:06.380
The case progresses and I was constantly getting communications from the highest loves of the
00:58:14.860
Because there was a concern that even if a small attack took place, are you telling me
00:58:20.200
that the FBI knew a Hezbollah cell was operating for four years and you did nothing?
00:58:25.820
And I felt, just like any other criminal enterprise case, that you had to have an insider.
00:58:32.340
We needed somebody that could talk about the dynamics within the group.
00:58:37.440
And we needed somebody that could definitively say that money was going to Hezbollah.
00:58:41.900
I found out that the core group got together on Sunday afternoons and played soccer in a
00:58:48.100
So I went to the park and they were some players short and I managed to get an invitation to play.
00:58:55.820
And I spent the afternoon kicking a soccer ball and playing in a pickup game with the people that
00:58:59.960
we had under investigation with the core Hezbollah cell.
00:59:05.560
And it was interesting because you can tell a lot about somebody on a soccer pitch.
00:59:14.080
This is, this would never fly to in today's day and age, guys.
00:59:16.980
If you want to do something undercover like this, like you need approvals up the wooza.
00:59:23.420
And nowadays, guys, little secret that you guys aren't going to find anywhere else here,
00:59:28.000
If the FBI is doing a terrorist case, the case agent can't even make contact and do an interview
00:59:40.460
So that just shows you guys how much times have changed to now.
00:59:47.200
They can't do as much as they used to be able to do.
00:59:48.840
Um, but yeah, the fact that he's out here playing soccer with a terrorist, like in a
01:00:04.280
Because I know the FBI policies because I got to, um, I've worked with them so much.
01:00:07.660
So I know for a fact when they do terrorism cases, like just to interview your suspect,
01:00:11.760
you got to go through a million chains, you know, and it's your case.
01:00:17.380
Harb was one of these bigger than life guys, very skilled player, very selfish player.
01:00:23.600
The game ended and the core group, the cousins and the brothers went off to eat together.
01:00:31.840
And he went to a bar, watched a football game, ordered some alcohol.
01:00:38.160
This is somebody that's going to become our insider down the road.
01:00:53.360
I think the audience, guys, if you liked the video, give me a like.
01:00:57.640
Like I said before, um, we're going to definitely cover BMF guys, but I like to keep the cases
01:01:03.280
It's been a while since we did a terrorism case.
01:01:11.120
Anytime you're dealing with a terrorist organization, which we considered the Charlotte Hezbollah
01:01:15.680
cell to be, you run the risk they're going to commit some violent act.
01:01:20.680
And so you hold the safety of the American people in your hands.
01:01:25.660
At a very specific time, I thought we have enough criminal information to dismantle this
01:01:37.100
So Rick Schwein begins preparing an affidavit for searches.
01:01:43.420
It's one of the longest affidavits I've ever written.
01:01:48.260
We were killing the biker gangs with the RICO statue.
01:01:51.420
And one of the things we would do before we indicted a RICO case was go hit their clubhouses
01:01:55.880
and find indicia of an organization doing things together to commit criminal acts.
01:02:01.960
So we fashioned the search warrant so that we...
01:02:14.460
So that means that a magistrate judge signed off on this.
01:02:19.260
So what we'll do is I'm going to go on Pacer real fast for you guys.
01:02:26.260
And I'll show you all how to do this real quick as well.
01:02:30.980
And what we're going to do is we're going to go on Pacer, right?
01:02:39.860
Like the video, guys, because ain't nobody going to teach you guys this, how to look up cases.
01:02:49.120
Actually, this was, what was this, the Western District of...
01:03:04.780
Edition of an organization doing things together to commit criminal acts.
01:03:19.780
So what I'm looking for at North Carolina, which district?
01:03:36.380
Because I know how these affidavits are written.
01:04:20.660
So you know you're on the right page, guys, when it's all white like this, right?
01:04:25.340
So you go ahead and click Western District of North Carolina.
01:04:29.960
And then what you're going to do is type that match number in.
01:05:15.520
I'm going to find this on the side for y'all, guys.
01:05:19.340
Affidavits for, like, arrest warrants are easier.
01:05:23.960
We fashioned the search warrant so that we could seize evidence that would support a RICO prosecution and also support a material support prosecution.
01:05:34.100
Rick assured me that, Bob, we can make this RICO case.
01:05:39.280
We're not sure about material support, but this was the very best opportunity that the FBI, that the United States had to successfully prosecute them in that manner with a law that's never been tried before.
01:05:53.800
And there were a lot of people who questioned whether it could be done.
01:06:02.180
These are the cases right here when I searched his name.
01:06:08.100
And you guys can see all the different dockets here.
01:06:17.420
So if I click this one and run report, since this is an old case, it probably won't show.
01:06:53.120
Of course, it's a freaking government website that always craps up.
01:06:55.560
So hundreds of agents from all different agencies, state, local, and federal,
01:07:00.800
gathered together at the command post to get their briefing,
01:07:03.600
to fan out and conduct searches and arrests across Charlotte.
01:07:09.500
They all had to happen exactly at the same time.
01:07:11.880
The word would get around and you'd lose defendants and you'd lose evidence.
01:07:15.120
Remember, Chris Wecker tapped me on the shoulder while I'm briefing all of our agents.
01:07:20.080
I'm talking about the case, giving them a complete view.
01:07:36.640
So you guys can see here's the affidavit, right?
01:07:48.420
Yeah, he did say it was a hundred page affidavit.
01:07:58.660
He wasn't kidding when he said he wrote almost a hundred page affidavit.
01:08:12.780
But yeah, it's not normal to have three affiants on one document.
01:08:19.580
And then you can see here Appendix A, what they're going to search, right?
01:08:22.600
This is a monster affidavit because what they want to take.
01:08:30.620
So he wants, he wants, no, but he wants records or documents concerning the following individuals,
01:08:35.860
So basically what he's doing here, guys, with the search warrant is he's writing the problem
01:08:41.600
cause up to justify what he wants us to search, which is all these different addresses.
01:08:47.260
And what he intends to take pertaining to these individuals.
01:08:53.960
Currency, photographs, all this stuff is in here of what he wants.
01:08:57.200
And it's normal for you to go ahead and like put things as fairly open, open.
01:09:03.360
So it gives you a little bit more leeway to get what you want.
01:09:05.900
Now, with that said, the judge has still got to sign on it.
01:09:09.020
I'm not going to give you the warrant, but as you guys can see, he has 84 pages justifying
01:09:14.440
why he needs to search the properties, et cetera.
01:09:20.440
And the way I found this, guys, just to backtrack our work here, is you put the name in, right?
01:09:40.400
So, yeah, I just put in his last name, first name, and then I hit run query.
01:09:46.140
And the only difference, guys, between these MJs and the CR, the CR means it was indicted formally.
01:09:51.180
The MJ means that these were documents signed in relation to a magistrate judge.
01:09:55.080
And when it says GCM, right, that just means the whole squad.
01:10:01.920
Versus when it's just dash seven, that means that's the defendant.
01:10:05.360
You always want to click the one that's like without a number because then it will give you
01:10:15.020
You ain't going to get a sauce like this anywhere else.
01:10:17.840
On the shoulder, he says, it's been put on hold.
01:10:28.400
So they're talking about doing a search warrant.
01:10:32.540
So hundreds of agents from all different agencies, state, local, and federal,
01:10:38.080
gathered together at the command post to get their briefing to fan out and conduct searches
01:10:46.660
They all had to happen exactly at the same time.
01:10:49.420
The reward would get around and you'd lose defendants and you'd lose evidence.
01:10:52.620
I remember Chris Wecker tapped me on the shoulder while I'm briefing all of our agents.
01:10:57.360
I'm talking about the case, giving them a complete view.
01:11:00.380
And Chris taps me on the shoulder and says, it's been put on hold.
01:11:08.700
You got 200 agents in town ready to do these warrants and now they're telling you you freaking
01:11:13.640
There was a huge backlash from the Justice Department, starting with Janet Reno.
01:11:24.080
200 officers, 18 search sites, massive operation by one person, the Attorney General.
01:11:34.580
I mean, I had all these people standing by ready to go.
01:11:42.580
To go kick doors down and put people in handcuffs and gather evidence.
01:11:50.740
And I have no idea if we're going to be able to execute tomorrow or never.
01:11:55.080
Ken and I decided we had to get to D.C. as quickly as we could.
01:11:58.700
We needed to convince her in a very compelling way that this needed to go forward.
01:12:06.660
So we went and had a meeting with the Attorney General, sitting at the head of a long conference table.
01:12:12.300
The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer in the United States, presidentially appointed.
01:12:21.080
So this is a big deal that they're going to meet with her.
01:12:23.500
But again, she is a woman, so that's why she's messing this case up.
01:12:29.260
Book in stores right now so you don't end up like this bimbo here,
01:12:32.300
trying to stop a terrorism investigation of one of the most dangerous cells.
01:12:43.560
You know, it was a stressful setting because, all right, so we spent years not doing this.
01:12:49.720
And Attorney General Reno started asking questions about, in this search warrant affidavit,
01:12:56.440
The Attorney General was very hypersensitive about calling people terrorists
01:13:01.180
when you're not arresting them for terrorism itself.
01:13:08.960
You don't want them to go ahead and commit a terrorist attack, man.
01:13:18.320
And the reason why is because when you mention that word terrorism, the country panics.
01:13:26.680
And, yeah, and this crazy part is this is before 9-11.
01:13:30.780
For racketeering, credit card fraud, cigarette smuggling, money laundering,
01:13:36.380
and you're calling them terrorists in this affidavit, that needs to come out.
01:13:40.340
The Attorney General looked over at one of her subordinates and said,
01:13:43.820
you and Ken and Chris, go in the other room and work through this.
01:13:47.000
Long story short, we had to rewrite the search warrant affidavit to take out every word
01:13:51.420
that the Department of Justice found offensive.
01:13:58.900
And we went through it line by line with a ruler.
01:14:02.900
So we fixed the affidavit to their satisfaction.
01:14:08.780
We said verbally over the phone, get ready to go.
01:14:11.740
And so on July 21st, 2000, at 6 o'clock in the morning, with 250 agents,
01:14:18.920
three SWAT teams spread out in various locations, I give the order.
01:14:24.320
A three-and-a-half-year investigation of cigarette smuggling and terrorism came to a blaring climax today.
01:14:31.580
ATF SWAT team did the entry at Mohamed Hamoud's house.
01:14:36.200
Hamoud grabbed a handgun as the team was making entry, and he dropped it as the entry team was coming up the hallway.
01:14:44.480
40 people arrested, and soon residents amazed to discover that their neighbors are actually suspected of supporting a notorious Middle Eastern terrorist organization.
01:14:53.960
The arrests of 17 individuals and the searches of 19 locations happen at the same time.
01:15:00.340
So I was on the team that was going to Saeed Harb's house, and they bring Saeed and his family out.
01:15:06.940
I had been focused on Harb because I really felt we needed that inside view.
01:15:11.320
I introduced myself and told him I'm with the FBI.
01:15:15.160
I'm obviously wearing a raid jacket, and the first thing he says to me is, hey, why the SWAT team?
01:15:25.240
And I just said, well, we're going to talk about that.
01:15:31.500
And I said, well, I played soccer with you one Sunday.
01:15:35.720
I guess he figured out that if I was playing soccer with him, I really knew everything I needed to know about his life.
01:15:41.860
He had this recognition on his face that he was in big trouble.
01:15:46.660
We had a staging area at the National Guard Armory where we processed, fingerprinted all these guys.
01:15:51.120
We took him to a room, we Mirandized him, and he re-entered.
01:15:55.460
So he talked about the cigarette smuggling and the credit card fraud and the alias identifications.
01:16:01.880
And he really just talked and talked and talked.
01:16:05.760
And after several hours, we got him something to eat.
01:16:09.000
He finally looked at me and he said, put your pen down and stop writing.
01:16:31.980
Because he knows that's the whole reason they did the cigarette smuggling, because they knew no one would care.
01:16:36.900
So for the FBI and all these guys to hit their houses the way they did, raids, you know, with SWAT teams, et cetera, for cigarette smuggling.
01:16:50.500
I remember Rick and Bob coming to me and saying, we need a live witness to testify about material support or we won't be able to make the case.
01:17:07.220
We mirandized Saeed Harbaugh and we interviewed and we talked to him for several hours.
01:17:13.740
He finally looked at me and he said, you want the book.
01:17:17.660
It was one of those great moments that you live for as an investigator, right?
01:17:28.820
And he said, I can't talk to you about that right now.
01:17:32.840
And that's when the Canadian information became critical.
01:17:38.400
That Canadian evidence showed that he had direct contact with Muhammad Dabouk in Vancouver.
01:17:43.760
We had surveillance photographs of Dabouk and Harb together, photographs of them together with fraudulent credit cards, meeting at times and places required dual use military equipment for Hezbollah.
01:17:57.880
Once he knew he was going to be charged with material support to terrorism, that's when he knew he had to strike a deal.
01:18:05.240
The negotiation turned to, I will cooperate with you, but I've got concerns about my family in Lebanon.
01:18:12.400
His view was, and I expect he's right, that if it came to be known that he was cooperating in our prosecution, his family would be dead.
01:18:21.420
So Ken was the guy that was taking the point on moving the family to the U.S.
01:18:29.600
He didn't start talking until the government can guarantee his family's safety.
01:18:33.780
You know, and this is what, you know, if you're ever arrested by the police guys, God forbid that ever happens to you or by the feds or whatever, and you have information that they want, you want to make sure you say, yo, I want a lawyer.
01:18:43.500
If you guys want me to cooperate, I'm not doing it without a lawyer.
01:18:45.980
And then what you do is you get your lawyer involved from the beginning.
01:18:48.360
You don't say a fucking word and you let the lawyer know, hey, I'm willing to cooperate, negotiate something on my behalf.
01:18:53.980
Because until you have a lawyer, you can't really do anything.
01:18:56.100
And what it does is it puts the power on your side as a defendant, right, to say, I need something before I cooperate with y'all.
01:19:03.740
And typically, that's the best way to go about it through a defense counselor.
01:19:09.100
My first idea of how to get CARP's cooperation.
01:19:16.320
You're not going to get advice like that anywhere else, bro.
01:19:18.320
If you get arrested by the feds, don't say shit.
01:19:27.100
The full power of the United States government was put into play to make that happen.
01:19:32.200
See, that's what happens when you leverage correctly, especially with a high-stakes case like this.
01:19:38.860
I mean, these were like children, women, grandparents.
01:19:41.780
We flew them out and brought them en masse to Washington to a hotel.
01:19:59.020
Like somewhere between 6 to 12 witnesses for my case.
01:20:14.440
And if you guys look at this affidavit I showed you all before, I think there's the reason why, which I thought was weird, but it kind of makes sense now.
01:20:20.920
You see here that there's three case agents that signed this affidavit.
01:20:27.640
Then you got, obviously, Schwein, the guy that's involved in this documentary from the FBI.
01:20:32.580
So this was a joint case because I've never seen it before where three different agents signed an affidavit.
01:20:38.640
That was probably some, you know, political BS where it's like, yo, we want all of our agencies involved in this affidavit.
01:20:46.300
Because that's not usual at all where there's multiple affidavits.
01:20:50.960
People know you're trying to smuggle them out of the country.
01:20:54.580
And as soon as his family was spirited out of Lebanon, he signed the plea agreement and agreed to testify.
01:21:21.380
There were counter snipers on rooftops and helicopter patrols and a lot of security with the movement of the defendants in the case.
01:21:29.660
Yeah, first successful terrorism charge in the U.S. history.
01:21:34.680
And the courthouse in Charlotte, North Carolina, became just a big circus.
01:21:41.040
Testified not only to what was going on out of Canada with the dual-use equipment and Muhammad Dabuk's role.
01:21:46.680
He confirmed force that Muhammad Hamoud was raising money for criminal conduct.
01:21:51.340
One by one, the cell members were pleading guilty and 24 individuals fled guilty to marriage fraud, document fraud, RICO.
01:22:01.000
Only two left standing were Hamoud and his brother.
01:22:12.500
Everybody expects the Perry Mason moment, right?
01:22:14.620
You get the defendant on the stand and he admits that he's guilty.
01:22:17.800
And he admitted that he supported Hezbollah, but only the charitable wing of it.
01:22:22.080
But they engage in violent acts and sponsor violent acts all over the world.
01:22:33.160
The FBI had an informant in the county jail where Muhammad Hamoud was being held, who told
01:22:40.580
them that Hamoud had put out a contract to first blow up the evidence at the courthouse
01:22:46.620
and that he also wanted two bullets in the brain of that arrogant bastard prosecutor.
01:22:53.520
Talk about, bro, how do you all get arrested for being a terrorist and make another terrorist
01:23:04.940
You know, we were able to take some steps to protect Ken and his family.
01:23:14.680
It's the law enforcement that has the weapons, of course.
01:23:20.120
They wanted my wife and sons to leave the area and go into protective custody.
01:23:24.320
The FBI put a remote starter on my car and started carrying a weapon.
01:23:28.080
And I was thinking, if they want me dead, I will be dead.
01:23:35.260
And to clarify, him saying, I'm carrying that weapon, that was his personal use weapon.
01:23:41.180
We learned that Hamoud was open to the idea of the prosecutor being killed.
01:23:46.780
My wife thought, when it came out, because it was in the Charlotte Observer front page, arrogant bastard prosecutor.
01:23:59.500
She said, you know, what wife gets to see confirmation of what she's known for years right in the newspaper that her husband's an arrogant bastard?
01:24:06.420
The jury went out, and the jury stayed out for three days to come back with the verdict of guilty.
01:24:17.500
We have got the first material support conviction in the country.
01:24:21.300
Originally, Mohamed Hamoud was sentenced to 155 years in prison.
01:24:27.040
There was an appeal that went up to the Supreme Court, and he was sentenced to 30 years.
01:24:41.140
The prison term, he's out of prison now and has been for some time.
01:24:44.460
Smoke screen broke up what federal prosecutors say was a ring.
01:24:48.340
Smoke screen still is the most important terrorism case, talking about terrorist organizations and how they fund themselves.
01:24:56.060
It was a benchmark case for the first use of the material support statute.
01:25:01.040
It was the first conviction at trial in American history.
01:25:06.580
Which laid the groundwork for all the future terrorism investigations that you guys know now.
01:25:11.560
The proof now is the fact that it's been used over 100 times since this case came about.
01:25:16.720
It is the primary tool to address ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
01:25:20.120
Every single indictment of an ISIS or Al-Qaeda person has included material support.
01:25:26.640
Are there some of the people involved in the United States today?
01:25:31.600
They do low-level criminal activity that generates a lot of money.
01:25:34.740
So it's hard to picture them as this thoroughly dangerous organization that they are.
01:25:40.560
It's not a leap that this cell could have become operational if it was in the best interest of Hezbollah or Iran.
01:25:48.500
I would submit that Hezbollah represents a clear and present danger to the United States right now.
01:25:54.300
Because with all the attention paid to ISIL, just in the corners, just under the radar, is Hezbollah.
01:26:02.220
As a matter of fact, Hezbollah is stronger than ever.
01:26:14.740
Guys, that's actually one of my favorite episodes on Declassified.
01:26:22.120
I mean, I didn't know that much about terrorism here in America.
01:26:25.580
But that's crazy. I mean, how they managed to build something so big from nothing.
01:26:32.720
Yeah. From like one source coming in and saying, yo, there's this guy in the U.S. doing this stuff.
01:26:36.460
And they were able to like identify an entire network, you know, into Canada, selling weapons illegally.
01:26:42.400
Like it was a really good case and, you know, brought me back a lot of memories as an agent myself.
01:26:49.120
Like the video. Follow Angelica, guys, at So and Helica, as she would say, with two A's at the end.
01:26:56.860
I'll catch you guys on the next episode of Fed It.
01:27:02.380
I was a special agent with Homelands Investigations.
01:27:05.640
The cases that I did mostly were human smuggling.