A seemingly ordinary bust of a gang involved in drugs, money laundering and counterfeit merchandise, turns out to be not so ordinary.
When the Central California District US Attorney's Office announced arrests in Operation Bellbottom, it made no mention of a terrorism connection.
Today’s arrests and two over the weekend are the result of a two-year investigation into criminal conduct in and around clothing stores in the Los Angeles area. The investigation focused on the activities of Ali Khalil Elreda, his siblings and his associates. During the investigation, law enforcement has seized 30 kilograms of cocaine and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of counterfeit clothing.
Of course, the names of the people arrested might have raised an eyebrow
Ali Khalil Elreda, 32, of Bell;
- Mohamad Elreda (Ali’s brother), 25, of Bell;
- Susanne Elreda (Ali’s sister), 34, of Smyrna, Georgia;
- Hussein Saleh Saleh, 37, of Bell;
- Robert Bell, 36, of Corona;
- Dalisa Johnson, 37, of Corona;
- Moussa Matar, 48 , of Cudahy;
- Mohamad Matar (Moussa’s son), 28, of Cudahy;
- Ali Matar (Mohamad’s twin brother), 28, of Cudahy:
- Juan Gonzalez, 26, of Lynwood;
- Frankie Higuera, 24, of Downey; and
- Crystal Hill, 25, of Hawthorne.
The mix of Arab and Mexican names might throw one off. The LA Times makes the connection
The focus of the federal investigation was Ali Khalil Elreda, 32, who was detained at Los Angeles International Airport last year, accused of trying to smuggle $120,000 in money orders and cashier's checks, hidden in a child's toy, to Lebanon, according to an indictment and an affidavit filed in the case.
In 2005, a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department official showed a Senate committee a picture of a tattooed shop owner who had been arrested the year before on charges of selling counterfeit high-fashion merchandise. The tattoo was a symbol of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed guerrillas operating in Lebanon.
In his testimony, Lt. John Stedman, a top supervisor in the department's emergency operations bureau, did not identify the shop owner. Stedman was not involved in the most recent investigation.
But two law enforcement sources said Tuesday that the merchant was Elreda.
None have been charged with terrorist activity. But according to James Gordon Meek writing for the Counterterrorism blog
...the affidavits filed in court, which are signed by prosecutors from the Justice Department's National Security Division and by an FBI official assigned to "Counterterrorism Squad 4" in L.A., a task force brimming with agents from the FBI, DEA, IRS, Department of Homeland Security and local cops. CT-4 isn't known for making drug and counterfeiting cases.
And Matthew Levitt gives us more background
In the United States, law enforcement officials are investigating a variety of criminal enterprises suspected of funding Middle Eastern terrorist groups, including the stealing and reselling of baby formula, food stamp fraud, and scams involving grocery coupons, welfare claims, credit cards, and even unlicensed t-shirts sales. U.S. officials believe "a substantial portion" of the estimated millions of dollars raised by Middle Eastern terrorist groups comes from the $20 million to $30 million annually brought in by the illicit scam industry in America. A senior U.S. law enforcement official concluded, "There is a significant amount of money moved out of the United States attributed to fraud that goes to terrorism."
Hezbollah and other terrorist groups also traffic narcotics in North America to fund their activities back in the Middle East. A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation into a pseudoephedrine smuggling scam in the American Midwest led investigators as far as Jordan, Yemen, Lebanon, and other Middle Eastern countries, including bank accounts tied to Hezbollah and Hamas. DEA chief Asa Hutchinson confirmed, "a significant portion of some of the sales are sent to the Middle East to benefit terrorist organizations."
