FBI’s Top Ten News Stories for the Week Ending October 23, 2009

Washington, D.C. October 23, 2009

Boston: Massachusetts Man Charged with Conspiracy to Provide Material Support to Terrorists

Tarek Mehanna was charged today in federal court with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. The complaint alleges Mehanna conspired with Ahmad Abousamra and others to provide material support and resources for use in carrying out a conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country and extraterritorial homicide of a U.S. national.

El Paso: Ravelo Placed on FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List

Eduardo Ravelo was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Ravelo is being sought for his alleged involvement in the Barrio Azteca transnational gang and their racketeering, money laundering, and drug-related activities in the El Paso, Texas area.

Los Angeles: Man Wanted for Multiple Murders Named to FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List

A Los Angeles man wanted by multiple agencies in connection with at least four murders and various other crimes was added to the FBI’s list of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. Jose Luis Saenz first came to the attention of law enforcement when Los Angeles Police Department detectives identified him as the suspect in the 1998 murder of two men in the Hollenbeck area of Los Angeles. Less than two weeks later, Saenz is believed to have kidnapped, raped, and murdered his girlfriend, who was also the mother of his child.

Philadelphia: Semion Mogilevich Added to FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List

Semion Mogilevich was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. Mogilevich is wanted for his alleged participation in a multi-million dollar scheme to defraud thousands of investors in the stock of a public company incorporated in Canada, but headquartered in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Investors lost more than $150 million through the alleged scheme.

Washington Field: Maryland Scientist Charged with Attempted Espionage

Stewart David Nozette, a Maryland scientist who once worked in varying capacities for the Department of Energy, the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was arrested for attempted espionage. The complaint charges that Nozette knowingly and willfully attempted to communicate, deliver, and transmit classified information relating to the national defense of the United States to an individual he believed to be an Israeli intelligence officer. The complaint does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf committed any offense under U.S. laws in this case.

FBI Headquarters: Alleged La Familia Cartel Members and Associates Arrested in Nationwide Takedown

Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart, and ATF Acting Director Kenneth E. Melson announced the arrest of nearly 1,200 individuals on narcotics-related charges and the seizure of more than 1.7 tons of narcotics as part of a 44-month multi-agency law enforcement investigation known as Project Coronado. Over the past two days, 303 individuals in 19 states were arrested as part of Project Coronado, which targeted the distribution network of a major Mexican drug trafficking organization known as La Familia, through coordination between federal, state and local law enforcement. More than 3,000 agents and officers operated across the United States to make the arrests during the two-day takedown. During the two-day operation alone, $3.4 million in U.S. currency, 729 pounds of methamphetamine, 62 kilograms of cocaine, 967 pounds of marijuana, 144 weapons and 109 vehicles were seized by law enforcement agents.

Cleveland: Three Sentenced for Conspiring to Commit Terrorist Acts Against Americans Overseas

Three Ohio residents, Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan Othman El-Hindi, and Wassim I. Mazloum were sentenced to prison terms ranging from more than 8 years to 20 years for conspiring to commit terrorist acts against Americans overseas, including U.S. military personnel in Iraq, and other terrorism-related violations.

San Diego: Leaders of Arellano-Felix Criminal Organization Plead Guilty

Jesus “Chuy” Labra-Aviles, Efrain Perez, Jorge Aureliano Felix, and Armando Martinez-Duarte pleaded guilty in United States District Court to charges arising from their leadership of the Arellano-Felix drug trafficking organization (AFO). According to court documents, the AFO is a criminal enterprise based in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Over the course of two decades, the AFO has shipped hundreds of tons of cocaine and marijuana to the United States; laundered hundreds of millions of dollars in drug proceeds; kidnapped, tortured, and murdered numerous persons, including informants and law enforcement personnel; and paid millions of dollars in bribes to government officials. All four defendants had been extradited from Mexico to the United States in December 2008 to stand trial.

Los Angeles: Twenty Charged in Connection with $26 Million Medicare Fraud Schemes

Twenty defendants, most of them residing in the Los Angeles area, were charged in seven cases with allegedly participating in Medicare fraud schemes that resulted in more than $26 million in fraudulent bills to the Medicare program.

Miami: Former Top Ten Fugitive Sentenced to 45 Years in Prison

One-time Norte Valle Cartel kingpin and former FBI Top Ten fugitive Diego Montoya Sanchez was sentenced to a 45-year term of imprisonment for conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and obstruction of justice by murder. He was also sentenced to a concurrent 45-year term in prison for conspiring to participate in conducting the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering activity. The prosecution was a result of Operation Resurrection, an FBI investigation initiated in the late 1990s that targeted leaders of Colombia’s Norte Valle Cartel. Based upon FBI estimates, at its peak the Norte Valle Cartel was responsible for 60 percent of the cocaine exported from Colombia to the United States.