Not quite two months ago, a court in LaGrange County (just up the road from the Fort) convicted Adel Al Yazidi on three counts of attempted murder over a shooting in March of 2004. The reason this is blogworthy is that no mention was made in the account of that conviction of the other interesting things found when Al Yazidi was arrested. They certainly caught my eye. Here's my post from March of 2004 discussing the article, and here's the Google cache link of the J-G article itself:
The person charged in the shooting is Adel Al Yazidi, 34. He was arrested Friday in Trumbull County, Ohio, accused in the attempted murder of three people on the outskirts of this northern LaGrange County town on March 24.
The case has since evolved beyond the shooting. When Yazidi was arrested, police found a Mideastern video depicting various buildings and explosions, along with sheets of counterfeit cigarette tax stamps inside the home where he was staying.
"The FBI stated they don't believe there's any link (to terrorism)," said Detective Jeff Campos of the LaGrange County Sheriff's Department, adding he is not worried about a terrorist threat in LaGrange County.
. . .
While searching the home of Yazidi's girlfriend north of Warren, near Orwell, Ohio, police found thousands of counterfeit cigarette tax stamps and the video.
Yazidi has been linked to addresses in a number of states, including Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New York and Indiana, Campos said.
But police do not believe Yazidi is funding terrorism in Yemen.
Wendy Osborne of the Indiana FBI said she could not confirm or deny whether the FBI is investigating Yazidi.
The counterfeit cigarette tax stamps Ohio police found in the house - where Yazidi was staying - look like official stamps issued by state governments, said Detective Chet McNabb of the Trumbull-Ashtabula-Geauga Law Enforcement Task Force.
The stamps, which are legally required to be affixed to packs of cigarettes sold everywhere but on Indian reservations, are clear cellophane, with writing in black or blue ink, McNabb said. The counterfeit stamps - made on a computer - are stuck to packs bought at Indian reservations and then sold for full price.
"They'll take them to mom and pop stores, Arabic stores, put fake tax stamps on them, sell them for full price," McNabb said. "Eventually that money gets funneled back into the system to go back oversees. That's one of the ways (terrorists) get money."
I'd certainly be interested in hearing more about this angle, even if that turned out to be "We investigated that further and didn't find anything."
Posted by Chris at March 3, 2006 04:41 PM