Realterror News Articles

Spy sinks JFK plotters

By FRANCIS JOSEPH Monday, June 4 2007

 

A CONVICTED drug trafficker, working as a spy for the Joint Terrorist Task Force in New York, was the man responsible for sinking his “partners” in an alleged plot to blow up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at JFK International Airport in New York.

According to the informant who infiltrated the group of Guyanese and Trinidadian would-be terrorists, the plan was to destroy JFK Airport for which their secret codename was “the Chicken Farm”.

Although he was not named in a 33-page criminal complaint unsealed in the Brooklyn, New York court on Friday, the undercover man seems to be one of the men who worked with intelligence officials in Fort Lauderdale in 2004, to capture Jamaat al Muslimeen operator Lance Small on charges of conspiracy to import AK-47 rifles and silencers in Trinidad. In 2005, Small was sentenced to 12 and a half years in a US prison for the crime.

The US government has been working with this informant, whose nationality is not known, since 2004, the court documents revealed. He was convicted on federal drug trafficking and racketeering charges in the Southern District of New York in 1996. He was also convicted of drug trafficking charges in the New York Supreme Court in 2003. His sentence in that case is pending as part of a cooperation agreement with the US government. In addition to the expectation of a reduced sentence in exchange for his cooperation, the informant also receives financial assistance.

According to the investigating officer, the informant provided extremely credible information that has been corroborated by recordings, emails, financial documents, surveillance and other records of information, gathered by US officers.

The informant worked closely with Russell De Freitas, the 63-year-old Guyanese with US citizenship, who was arraigned in the Brooklyn court on Saturday charged with the plot to blow up JFK Airport.

De Freitas, who worked as a cargo employee with a small aircraft company at JFK Airport, was arrested at a diner in Brooklyn on Friday night.

Former Guyanese parliamentarian Abdul Kadir, 55, was held on board an Aeropostal Flight at Piarco International Airport bound for Venezuela on Friday morning. Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim, 56, was held on Saturday morning near his mosque at Cane Farm in Tacarigua. A search is now on in Trinidad for the third Guyanese, Abdel Nur, who arrived here last week from Georgetown.

There is no record of his departure from Trinidad. He is believed to be on the run in Trinidad and up to press time had not been apprehended. All four have been charged in New York with conspiracy to blow up buildings, fuel tanks and fuel lines. The informant will be the key witness against the four suspects, when the charges are laid in Brooklyn.

Most of the 33-page documents revealed communication between the informant and De Freitas. On July 13, 2006, the informant met De Freitas at the Gertz Plaza Mall in Queens, New York. De Freitas felt he knew the informant from his mosque in Brooklyn. According to the court documents, De Freitas confided to the informant that he had a vision that would make the World Trade Center attack seem small.

A month later, the talk came up again. De Freitas said there were some “brothers”, not Arabs, but from Trinidad and Guyana who wanted to do something bigger than the World Trade Centre. De Freitas said the “brothers” would come from Trinidad and Guyana to New York to conduct the operation. That was the beginning of a number of recordings by the informant. According to De Freitas, the cell of six to seven persons would go to JFK by aircraft, “do what they have to do and get out.”

De Freitas told the informant that the cell was searching for someone from New York to be part of the operation.

At a later date, De Freitas asked the informant, “Would you like to die a martyr?” In order to ingratiate himself with the group, the informant said that was the greatest way to die in Islam. De Freitas invited the informant to Guyana for Ramadan in 2006. The informant agreed and spent five weeks in Guyana where he met other people to discuss their plans. During the meeting, the informant was told that the group was working on two scenarios – smuggle individuals, including mujahideen, from Asia into Guyana and then to New York; or secondly, to attack the United States where it would inflict the most harm.

In January this year, the informant and De Freitas conducted four surveillance operations at JFK Airport. De Freitas said that while working at JFK Airport, he saw military parts being shipped to Israel, including missiles that he felt would be used to kill Muslims. According to De Freitas, he “wanted to do something to get those bastards.” During one of the surveillance trips to JFK Airport, De Freitas predicted that the plot would result in the destruction of “the whole of Kennedy”, that only a few people would escape and that due to the underground piping, part of Queens would explode.

De Freitas went on to predict that, as a result of the plot, he and the informant would “get our blessings and our rewards in a place of paradise.” He said he had been waiting years for the opportunity. He had the idea from the time he was working at JFK, long before terrorism started in the US. He boasted that he had been taught to make bombs in Guyana.

On January 14, De Freitas and the informant returned to Guyana and held more meetings. Unknown to them, they were being monitored all the time by US intelligence. De Freitas then expressed his desire to travel to Trinidad to discuss the plans.

On February 28, De Freitas and the informant returned to New York. De Freitas was thoroughly searched by US Customs and Border patrol officers. The officers found and copied De Freitas’ phone book containing the names and numbers of certain people. De Freitas later told the informant that he had become extremely suspicious that the US government knew about their plans.

Nevertheless, plans continued and they started to speak in codes. The plot was now referred to as “the Chicken Farm.” The person they were meeting in Trinidad was referred to as the “gentleman”. The trip to Trinidad was planned for May 20 to 24. On May 20, De Freitas and the informant travelled to Trinidad and met with a member of the Jamaat al Muslimeen at a certain location. But the Muslimeen man deferred the meeting to make “checks” on his visitors. De Freitas and the informant left and went to a house in Tacarigua. During a discussion there, De Freitas said he wanted to present the JFK plans to the Jamaat man, but he was concerned for their safety.

De Freitas was then told to forget the Jamaat man and look to contacts overseas who may be interested in funding or purchasing the idea. The plans were left behind by De Freitas and stored in Tobago. The informant and De Freitas returned to New York on May 26.

The US investigating officer swung into action and swore to the criminal complaint on June 1, asking for warrants for the arrest of the four individuals. The Trinidad and Tobago police were contacted and swiftly responded to the US request, arresting Kadir on Friday and Ibrahim on Saturday. If convicted on these charges in the United States, the men could face life imprisonment. De Freitas, as a US citizen could also be charged for treason which carries the death penalty.

Ibrahim and Kadir will appear before a Port-of-Spain Magis-trate this morning to answer a request for their extradition, which has already been requested of the Trinidad and Tobago Foreign Affairs Ministry and Attorney General John Jeremie by the US Justice Department.