Federal agents launch raids against financing schemes allegedly

WASHINGTON -- Hoping to cut off financing schemes that could aid terrorists, federal agents have launched a series of raids that nabbed nine people across the country on charges they were illegally moving money abroad or selling fake passports.

Among the operations that authorities said they cracked was one in New York that allegedly moved $33 million to Pakistan. Another was a network of tobacco stores in Minnesota that allegedly smuggled cash to Lebanon and Jordan.

Authorities said while none of those who were arrested over the past three days were being charged for being terrorists, the schemes they used and the countries they were involved with have been "exploited by terrorist organizations."

"By dismantling these illegal networks, we are denying avenues for terrorist groups to raise and move funds in this country," said Michael Garcia, a top official with the new Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which oversees the Operation Green Quest task force charged with stemming the flow of money to terrorist groups.

The task force is made up of several federal agencies on the front lines of the war on terrorism, including the FBI, IRS, Secret Service, Naval Intelligence Service, Coast Guard and Postal Inspection Service.

To date, the task force has arrested 93 people and seized $11 million said to have been involved in terrorist financing operations. It has seized $24 million more in smuggled cash, most headed to countries with terrorist problems.

In a Friday morning raid in Los Angeles, agents arrested one man after agents intercepted more than 270 money orders totaling nearly $136,000 that were being shipped to Beirut via private parcels.

In New York City, agents arrested four people in raids Thursday night that resulted from an 18-month undercover operation that authorities said showed a business named Manhattan Foreign Exchange moved $33 million to Pakistan.

Authorities said some of the money was from illegal narcotics.

Associates of the business, located in the basement of a restaurant, also sold fake U.S., Pakistani, Canadian and British passports and other fraudulent travel documents, officials alleged.

Manhattan Foreign Exchange's owner, Shaheen Khalid Butt, was arrested on money laundering, currency reporting, conspiracy and immigration fraud charges, officials said.

Authorities said law enforcers used electronic surveillance to show that Butt and his unlicensed business "received frequent cash deliveries, tens of thousands of dollars at a time, from various people," U.S. Attorney James B. Comey said.

Also Thursday, agents arrested four people and searched five tobacco stores and one home in Minnesota. Authorities said they had evidence the business had engaged in tobacco stamp fraud and had smuggled hundreds of thousands of dollars to Lebanon and Jordan.

In one instance, agents discovered nearly $157,000 in cashier's checks sewn into the lining of a handbag that was to be brought aboard a flight destined for Lebanon, officials said.

In New Jersey, agents seized more than $48,000 on Wednesday from two bank accounts from which numerous checks were being sent in packages to Yemen, site of the 2000 terrorist attack on the Navy destroyer, the USS Cole, authorities said.