This is a story, hat tip: Paul, from the Investigative Project on Terrorism about a Somali who will soon be sentenced for illegally smuggling Somalis, who may have terrorist connections, into the US.
From the Investigative Project:
A lucrative and active human smuggling ring brought an undetermined number of potential Somali jihadists into the United States through Brazil, federal prosecutors say in court papers.
Those prosecutors are asking a federal judge in San Antonio to give the maximum sentence to a Somali man who pleaded guilty in November to two counts of making false statements on a 2008 asylum application. Ahmed Muhammed Dhakane failed to report his connections to Al-Ittihad Al-Islami (AIAI) and al-Barakat, both specially designated terrorist organizations.
When he is sentenced April 28, prosecutors want U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez to factor in a series of related and disturbing actions spelled out in this memorandum, including the human smuggling of potential terrorists. They intend to call several law enforcement witnesses and three people Dhakane smuggled into the country.
The smuggling was run through Brazil, aided by bribes paid to immigration authorities there, from June 2006 through March 2008. Dhakane instructed those he smuggled on how to make false asylum claims.
The sentencing memo was first reported by Patrick Poole.
[…..]
Dhakane smuggled in people he knew were violent jihadists “with the full knowledge that if the decision was made by the [terrorist group], for which he was associated with in the past, to commit terrorist acts in the United States, these jihadists would commit violent acts in and against the United States,” they [prosecutors] added.
Read it all, Dhakane may also be charged in a rape case.
Gosh, it was just yesterday we reported that asylum lawyers were putting their heads together on how to flood the system with asylum claims from Mexico, here.
And then, here, back in January, I speculated that some of the Somalis making their way across the world are somehow in contact with asylum lawyers or non-profit agencies awaiting their arrival on the southern border. I wonder did this case involve any advance planning with Mr.Dhakane from this side of the border? That is what I would like to know!