by Dan Eggen, Washington Post
The FBI and the Immigration and Naturalization Service have raided 75 jewelry stores and kiosks in U.S. shopping malls as part of an investigation into suspected money laundering by the al Qaeda terrorist network, officials said yesterday.
About a dozen men, mostly Pakistanis, remain in custody on immigration charges as a result of the sweeps, which also netted documents, computer records and other evidence being examined by anti-terrorism investigators, officials said.
Law enforcement officials said the sweeps, carried out in late June, represented the early phase of a probe centering on a chain of stores, most of them called Intrigue Jewelers, that is owned by a Florida company under suspicion of funding terrorist activities and laundering terrorist money.
“There were some indirect linkages with al Qaeda that certainly warranted some type of review and action,” the official said. “It was brought to us as an al Qaeda operation. . . . At the end of the day, we believe this may be very important.”
Another law enforcement official said “it’s too early in the process” to know if the businesses are connected to al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.
Most of the kiosks involved in the case are licensed by an Orlando company called Gold Concept Inc., which is owned by a naturalized U.S. citizen named Arif Rajan, of Ocoee, Fla.
Rajan’s attorney, Philip K. Calandrino of Orlando, said yesterday his client cooperated fully with FBI requests on June 26 to look through his computers and paper records. Calandrino said Rajan had not since heard from investigators.
Rajan has no connection with al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, Calandrino said. He said Rajan’s business has been losing money since Sept. 11 and has had to cover rent payments for many operators as the economy slowed.
“He has no connection to terrorist groups and he’s not sending any money overseas,” Calandrino said. “He’s concerned about what this might mean for the future of his business and for the operators who are just trying to make their way.”
U.S. officials said the kiosk raids are part of efforts to disrupt and track suspected terrorist financing since the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, which investigators believe were bankrolled with about $500,000 from Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda organization.
One U.S. official familiar with the investigation said that al Qaeda has long been known to use gold as a parallel currency to hide and move financial assets.
“What we are finding is that there are anomalies in a lot of the movement of gold into and out of the United States in the months after September 11,” the official said. “One of the main ways to move money and disguise it seems to be through gold companies and jewelry stores, and that is what we are trying to get a handle on.”
Gold has long been a favorite way for organized crime and drug traffickers to launder money, because it is almost universally accepted but escapes the reporting requirements of cash. It can be deposited in banks and converted to cash easily and retains its value. It is also the preferred medium of exchange across Pakistan, India and much of the Arab world.
The roots of the kiosk case stretch back to the weeks after Sept. 11, when officials investigated the operators of an Intrigue Jewelers location in the Allentown, Pa., area, according to Calandrino and U.S. officials. The men came under suspicion after developing photographs of the World Trade Center; one fled the country while another was charged with immigration violations, according to press reports at the time.
On June 26, FBI agents and INS officers, coordinated through regional Joint Terrorism Task Forces, visited jewelry stores and kiosks linked to Rajan’s company in eight states, officials and attorneys said.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, which reported on the operation in yesterday’s editions, quoted one target of a Philadelphia area sweep as saying investigators searched his apartment and seized a computer, photos and documents.
Tariq Hussain, a former U.S. Army mechanic, told the newspaper that FBI agents quizzed him about bin Laden and al Qaeda. Hussain said the agents were alarmed by notes on nuclear, chemical and biological warfare he said he took as part of an Army training class.
One official said that a “limited number” of criminal warrants were served, but that the searches were not necessarily related to terrorism.
“Clearly there’s an interest in the movement of money related to these organizations and whether or not these organizations may be a front for laundering money,” one official said.
Calandrino said Rajan does not provide his franchisees with the jewelry they sell, but merely negotiates with shopping malls for space and leases. His company earns about $1,000 to $2,000 per month from about 40 franchise operators, Calandrino said.