17 arrested on weapons and fraud charges

05:58 PM PST on Friday, November 19, 2004

From KING 5 Staff and Wire Reports

SEATTLE – Terrorism task force agents have arrested 17 Seattle and Tacoma area residents on weapons, bank fraud and immigration charges.

The arrests stretch across Western Washington from Seattle to Kent, University Place to Puyallup.

Although all were arrested Thursday, the men were charged in several separate cases.

KING

One of the businesses raided by the anti-terrorism task force is on south Rainier Avenue.

"This is one investigation that grew into three," said Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Islamic training documents

Federal agents got a tip that Zaid Mumin, the Muslim convert formerly known as James Harris before he went to prison on a drug conviction, was teaching others how to shoot at a Renton gun club even though he is a felon and therefore not allowed to possess a gun.

In his Puyallup home, agents made a disturbing find Thursday morning: a rifle and three guns, and manuals on explosives, snipers, urban combat and how to kill with poisons.

Mumin was one of the defendants who appeared in Seattle Federal Court Thursday.

KING

Zaid Mumin, a Muslim convert, was known as James Harris before he went to prison on a drug conviction.

Agents rounded up the suspects at a south Seattle barbershop – The Crescent Cuts – and seized computers and other evidence inside.

The shop's operator, Ruben L. Shumpert, and two other men were charged with extortion and assault last month, accused of roughing up Bashir Hussein, the owner of a restaurant located downstairs.

Hussein said he had reported to police that some men in the barbershop were watching videos and even training children on how to shoot and kill Americans. He said the group beat him up when he refused to participate.

A man identified in a county search warrant as one of Shumpert's followers was among the five men charged in federal court Thursday as being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Friends of the five men arrested said the suspects aren't criminals.

In Washington, D.C., a federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said investigators have established no links to any international terror group, nor have they uncovered plans for any attack.

Authorities said several of the suspects have prior criminal records.

KING

Mumin held meetings at his Puyallup home.

Immigration conspiracy

There also were raids at two branches of a money transfer business for allegedly making false passports and wiring cash for crimes.

Terrorism task force agents arrested five Seattle-area residents Thursday on immigration fraud charges in connection with fake documents that allegedly helped people from the West African nation of Gambia enter the country illegally.

The five charged in the immigration scheme each face eight counts of conspiracy and immigration fraud, plus one count of unlicensed money transmitting. They are accused of providing or using fraudulent immigration documents.

The scheme involved providing Gambians with fraudulent passports and other immigration documents indicating they were from Sierra Leone, authorities said. Prosecutors said it is easier to gain asylum in the United States as a resident of Sierra Leone, because the country has been racked by war.

Bank fraud

Three other men were charged with defrauding banks of thousands of dollars.

The bank fraud counts allege that one of the men under arrest, Karim Abdullah Assalaam, led a scheme to deposit more than $10,000 worth of bad checks into various accounts over the past several years.

According to court papers, federal agents had been aware of the scheme since 2002, when an informant alerted them. The informant at times wore a wire to tape conversations with Assalaam.

In one such conversation, Assalaam allegedly said he was raising money not only for personal gain, but because "you can't go to war broke." He said his "whole Muslim crew" was involved in the scheme, authorities said.

The charging documents did not suggest money was actually funneled to terrorists.

The FBI investigation involved setting up fake accounts and businesses to trick Assalaam into believing that his scheme was successful, court papers said.

Most of those charged Thursday will face detention hearings next week.