Convicted Terrorist Arrested in California on Meth Charges
RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA (AP) — A man who served years in prison for conspiracy to commit terrorism has been arrested in Southern California on suspicion of selling large quantities of methamphetamine, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Ahmed Binyamin Alasiri, also known as Kevin Lamar James, faces two counts of distribution of meth, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office. It wasn’t immediately known if the 44-year-old Garden Grove resident has an attorney.
Alasiri was on supervised release following a 2009 conviction for conspiracy to levy war against the United States through terrorism, prosecutors said. Alasiri’s co-conspirators committed armed robberies of gas stations to raise money for attacks Alasari had planned on U.S. military operations and Israeli and Jewish facilities in Southern California, prosecutors said. [Meanwhile “Black Lives Matter” say 600 Jewish groups in full page NYT ad.]
Alasiri completed his prison sentence in September 2019.
He’s been ordered detained pending the outcome of the narcotics case. Arraignment is scheduled for September 14.”
The Justice Department press release on Alasiri’s arrest is here.
You can learn more about James/Alasiri because he wasn’t just some Muslim convert with casual plans to bomb this or that, he had become the face of prison radicalization in the mid-2000’s. For inquisitive minds visit Frontline in 2006.
And, then check out NIJ Journal in 2008 for a report on Sunni Muslim radicalization in the US prison system:
Prisoner Radicalization: Assessing the Threat
in U.S. Correctional Institutions
Years from now when criminologists write their textbooks on American terrorism, the name Kevin Lamar James may appear alongside such infamous figures as Timothy McVeigh, Ramzi Yousef and Osama bin Laden.
That is what the UK Daily Mail is reporting, but I would love to see some stats about where all of those leaving their soiled nests are now resettling (and likely bringing those liberal policies that created the LA hellhole with them).
Hollywood’s Apocalypse NOW: Rich and famous are fleeing in droves as liberal politics and coronavirus turn City of Dreams into cesspit plagued by junkies and violent criminals
Today, Los Angeles is a city on the brink. ‘For Sale’ signs are seemingly dotted on every suburban street as the middle classes, particularly those with families, flee for the safer suburbs, with many choosing to leave LA altogether.
British-born Danny O’Brien runs Watford Moving & Storage. ‘There is a mass exodus from Hollywood,’ he says.
‘And a lot of it is to do with politics.’His business is booming. ‘August has already set records and we are only halfway through the month,’ he tells me.
‘People are getting out in droves. Last week I moved a prominent person in the music industry from a $6.5 million [£5 million] mansion above Sunset Boulevard to Nashville.’
O’Brien, 58, who moved to LA from London 34 years ago, is also planning to move to Tennessee.
‘Liberal politics has destroyed this city,’ he says. ‘The homeless encampments are legal and there’s nothing the police can do. White, affluent middle-class folk are getting out. People don’t feel safe any more.’
With movie studios still shuttered because of the coronavirus pandemic and businesses only just starting to remove the wooden boards put up after city-wide rioting following the death of George Floyd while being arrested by three white officers in Minneapolis, LA is now in the grip of white flight.
Rush Limbaugh at one point was advocating that the President should do campaign stops in California (and elsewhere) to highlight what has become of big Democrat run cities. What do you think?
Update: Think twice about packing your bags for Tennessee as even there the Republican governor is drinking the BLM Kool-Aid. Read the Dailyrollcall and see what I mean!
Financial help for California’s undocumented immigrants starts Monday
California’s undocumented immigrants can begin applying Monday for disaster relief payments of up to $1,000 per household under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s coronavirus emergency assistance plan.
In April, Newsom announced a one-time, $75-million fund for undocumented adults who are not eligible for other forms of government assistance, such an unemployment benefits and federal stimulus checks. A qualifying undocumented adult can receive $500, with a maximum of $1,000 per household.
Since the announcement was made, many undocumented immigrants have been waiting for information to apply as soon as the application period opened.
California has more than two million undocumented immigrants. Nearly one in ten workers is undocumented.
With the funds spread among so many people, most families will not receive the funding. Applications are approved on a first-come, first-served basis, until the money runs out.
“In the best case scenario, these funds would reach one in 10 people,” said Unai Montes-Irueste, director of communications with United Ways of California.
[….]
Montes-Irueste of United Ways of California — which has helped undocumented immigrants without bank accounts during the pandemic — said it is important for people to know where to get help and avoid being scammed.
Called the Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants Project, the $75 million in state funding will be distributed to 12 organizations throughout California.
See the list of who is passing out the taxpayer dollars. Catholic Charities and Jewish Family Services are on the list. I’m guessing they get to keep a cut for their ‘administrative’ costs.
Thanks to reader Judy for alerting me to the story at the Washington Times from yesterday entitled:
ICE, FBI agents took bribes to provide ‘protection,’ cook books on immigration cases, feds say
I’ll let you read that yourself. LOL! The story has so many twists that I figured it would be easiest to first check out the press release from ICE, here.
LOS ANGELES – A Calabasas man has agreed to plead guilty to five federal offenses – one related to a credit card bust-out scheme, and the others related to more than $250,000 in bribes he paid to two federal agents for assistance that included sensitive law enforcement information.
Edgar Sargsyan, 39, an attorney with law offices in Beverly Hills, was charged today with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, two counts of bribing a public official, and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. In a plea agreement also filed today in U.S. District Court, Sargsyan agreed to plead guilty to the five felony counts, which cumulatively carry a statutory maximum penalty of 50 years in federal prison.
In the plea agreement, Sargsyan admitted paying tens of thousands of dollars from the beginning of 2015 through early 2017 to a special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
[….]
Sargsyan paid the HSI agent at least $32,000 in checks and at least $45,000 to $50,000 in cash in return for assistance that included the HSI agent searching law enforcement databases to corruptly obtain information that he passed to Sargsyan, according to the plea agreement. The HSI agent also altered a Department of Homeland Security database to make it more likely that a foreign national who was a client of Sargsyan’s law firm would be allowed to enter the United States. In another corrupt act detailed in the plea agreement, the HSI agent prepared a document on HSI letterhead in an unsuccessful attempt to have one of Sargsyan’s relatives from Armenia admitted into the United States.
Sargsyan also admitted he paid the FBI agent monthly cash bribes of up to $10,000 beginning in 2015 in exchange for the agent providing protection, which included running queries on law enforcement databases and warning Sargsyan to stay away from certain individuals who were the targets of criminal investigations. The agent, who worked out of the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office, accepted the cash payments on trips to Southern California, where he stayed at luxury hotels that were paid for by Sargsyan. The FBI agent also accepted from Sargsyan a $36,000 racing motorcycle as a bonus for running database checks on a particular person. Sargsyan also gave the FBI agent a $30,000 cashier’s check that was made to appear to be a payment to the agent’s business, according to court documents.
In his plea agreement, Sargsyan also admitted he participated in a conspiracy that defrauded financial institutions by fraudulently obtaining credit cards in the names of aliens who had previously been in the United States on J1 visitor visas. Once the credit cards were issued by the financial institutions, Sargsyan and his co-conspirator charged purchases, including more than $941,000 that Sargsyan personally charged at two businesses he controlled, Pillar Law Group and Regdalin Group.
Beverly Hills lawyer is at center of FBI agent corruption scandal, sources say
The FBI agent charged last week, Babak Broumand, ran Cisneros’ and Dermen’s names in restricted law enforcement databases, according to an affidavit supporting charges against Broumand. The queries showed both men were the subjects of ongoing investigations, the affidavit said.
Broumand retired last year after a 20-year career at the bureau. Prior to his departure, he was assigned to the FBI office in San Francisco, trusted with recruiting sources for investigations into national security matters. It was unclear from court records whether he’d retained an attorney.
East Bay FBI Agent Took Bribes From Armenian Mob, Feds Say
Now get this!
If there isn’t another EdgarSargsyan in the Los Angeles area we find his name pop up again in a 2018 report fromFox News:
Clinton donor’s dealings and murky connections questioned by watchdog group
EXCLUSIVE: The murky nature of Hillary Clinton’s former presidential campaign fund continues to rise to the surface.
Fox News has learned that one of the top donors to the “Hillary Victory Fund” (HVF) in 2016 was a Los Angeles-based attorney who is alleged to have misused company funds to create his own $22 million real estate portfolio. He has also been considered by California to be one of the state’s biggest tax cheats, and allegedly has ties to the Kremlin.
The donor, Edgar Sargsyan, contributed $250,000 to the Hillary Victory Fund in 2016, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, ands chaired a $100,000-a-couple Clinton fundraiser in Beverly Hills in September 2016. He is also being sued by his former company for allegedly diverting those funds to start his own real estate company.
There is much more in each of the links above!
I sure wish I knew how to draw one of these for this story!
The Justice Department press release on Alasiri’s arrest is here.
