Govt seizes assets belonging to Guyanese ‘terrorists’

The Guyana Government has seized assets belonging to the two Guyanese accused of terrorism activities in the United States of America; namely a plot to bomb the JFK Airport. The accused terrorists are Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur.
The move on the part of the Administration was made utilising the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) Laws. The order was effected by Minister within the Finance Ministry, Jaipaul Sharma.
The Ministerial Order, which has since been officially gazette, is titled the ‘Targeted Financial Sanctions (Specified Persons) Order 2017.
Under that Ministerial Order, it was noted that the two specified persons were identified as a result of being targeted for financial sanctions in accordance with a United Nations Security Council Resolution #1373 and referred to under Guyana’s AML/CFT laws.
Kadir, a former People’s National Congress (PNC) Member of Parliament (MP), is currently incarcerated in a United States penitentiary in Pennsylvania, as inmate #64656-0533. He is also identified by the moniker “Aubrey Michael Seaforth”.
Nur, also known as “Compton Eversley”, is incarcerated in a North Carolina State Federal Correctional Institution.
The Order was made by Minister Sharma on August 29 last.
The 2007 John F Kennedy International Airport attack plot was an alleged Islamist terrorist plot to blow up a system of jet fuel supply tanks and pipelines that feed fuel to John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in Queens, New York. These pipelines travel throughout the undergrounds of New York City in densely populated areas. The alleged plot was foiled when an undercover law enforcement official was recruited to the homegrown terrorist cell.
The main suspects in the terror plot were identified as Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese born naturialised United States citizen, and native of Guyana, who was suspected to be the alleged ringleader and was employed at the airport.
Kadir – the former PNC parliamentarian, was also found guilty along with Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago and Abdel Nur, another Guyanese and uncle of former world welterweight boxing champion Andrew “Six Heads” Lewis.
Defreitas allegedly was clandestinely recorded telling an informant that “Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States. To hit John F Kennedy, wow – They love JFK – he’s like the man. If you hit that, the whole country will be in mourning. It’s like you can kill the man twice.”
Defreitas had allegedly seen arms and missiles being shipped to Israel which he felt would be used to harm Muslims. The men are alleged to have named the plot “Chicken Farm”. Extensive surveillance of the targets including the use of satellite photographs had been done and attempts had been made to reach out to another Islamist terrorist group. No explosives had been bought.
According to a Newsday report on the terror plot, New York investigators were probing a possible Iran connection to the plot because Abdul Kadir planned to visit that country. In Trinidad, Police reportedly investigated whether Kareem Ibrahim had ties to Iraq and Iran.
According to US court documents, Kadir was the disciple of Mohsen Rabbani, an Iranian diplomat accused of being one of the masterminds behind the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.
Defreitas was arrested in Brooklyn, New York. Kadir and Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad on June 3, 2007. Nur surrendered to Police two days later in Trinidad.
On June 25, 2008, Kareem Ibrahim, Abdel Nur and Abdul Kadir were extradited to the United States. They pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to “cause greater destruction than in the September 11 attacks”. The men were ordered held without bail pending a hearing scheduled for August 7.
Russell Defreitas is being held after an earlier not guilty plea. On June 29, the four men were indicted on charges with conspiring to “cause death, serious bodily injury and extensive destruction” at the airport and on August 6, a Judge ordered three of the alleged plotters extradited to the United States.
On August 2, 2010, Kadir and Defreitas were convicted in the JFK airport bomb plot while in 2011, Ibrahim was found guilty of the JFK Airport bomb plot, and in February 2012, Ibrahim was sentenced to life to prison.