[ May 12, 2024 ]
This is hardly the first.
Michigan: Terror investigation nabs Muslim with cache of unregistered weapons in Ypsilanti
August 28, 2017, By Creeping Sharia:
Source: Did FBI thwart Michigan-based terror threat?
Story continues below advertisementThe FBI’s counterterrorism team blocked an Ypsilanti man from flying to the Middle East and arrested him Friday after discovering a weapons arsenal in a storage unit, the latest national security-related case in Metro Detroit.
Yousef Mohammad Ramadan, 28, has not been charged with a terror-related crime and an FBI spokesman declined to comment, leaving it unclear why the FBI’s counterterrorism team and the head of the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s national security unit are involved in the case, whether investigators had thwarted a terror attack or stopped a man from traveling overseas to commit terror.
The case is shrouded in secrecy. The U.S. Attorney’s Office quietly brought Ramadan into federal court Saturday for a rare weekend arraignment that happened when federal court was closed to the public. The arraignment, which was not posted on the court’s calendar, ended with a federal magistrate judge ordering Ramadan be held temporarily without bond.
Ramadan has been charged with knowingly possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, a five-year felony.
More details about the case are expected to be revealed when Ramadan appears for a detention hearing Tuesday in federal court. He’s being held in the Wayne County Jail.
The prosecutor overseeing the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel, chief of the office’s national security unit who successfully prosecuted underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, according to federal court records. The lead investigator is FBI Special Agent Ryan Schanberger, a member of an elite counterterrorism squad who investigated terror suspect Sebastian Gregerson, who will be sentenced to prison this week.
“Given the background of the agents and the assistant U.S. attorney, it appears to be more than a run-of-the-mill illegal gun case,” said Seamus Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. “The FBI devoted much more resources than they traditionally would for cases like this.”
Ramadan could not be reached for comment and his court-appointed lawyer did not respond to a message seeking comment Sunday.
Ramadan has lived in Ypsilanti and near San Diego, Calif., in recent years and worked as a security guard, according to public records. While living in Chula Vista, Calif., he received a firearm permit in 2010, but it expired in 2014, according to the state Department of Consumer Affairs.
His most recent address is at the Willow Ridge Apartments in Ypsilanti, five miles east of Michigan Stadium. A neighbor, Tonia Atkins, 47, said Sunday that “I’ve never seen anyone there.”
The counterterrorism case was revealed in a criminal complaint unsealed late Friday.
The case dates to Aug. 15 when Ramadan, his wife and children tried to fly to Amman, Jordan, aboard a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight, from an airport not identified in the complaint.
Before the family could depart, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and an FBI special agent interviewed Ramadan.
Ramadan told investigators the family was relocating to Bethlehem territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority, according to the FBI.
During the interview, Ramadan said he owned two rifles and a Glock handgun and placed the firearms in a storage unit before arriving at the airport, court records show.
Ramadan could not remember the storage unit address but offered to take investigators to the facility.
“However, when asked to take the agents to the storage unit, Ramadan stated that he had lied about the storage unit, and actually had stored the firearms with a friend,” Schanberger wrote in the criminal complaint.
Then the story changed.
“Ramadan refused to identify the friend to whom he had allegedly given the firearms, stating he did not want to cause his friend to have problems with law enforcement,” the agent wrote.
Ramadan said the firearms were legally purchased and registered.
Then the story changed again.
“Ramadan also stated that he had made up the story about the self-storage unit,” the agent wrote.
Records showed Ramadan had legally registered the Glock handgun, but investigators would soon find more weapons after agents linked Ramadan to a unit at Devon Self Storage on South State Road in Ann Arbor.
On Aug. 23, a federal magistrate judge approved a search warrant for the storage unit.
Ramadan’s wife is listed as the primary contact for the unit; he is the emergency contact, according to the FBI, which called the move an attempt to disguise Ramadan’s involvement with the storage unit.
The lease agreement for the storage unit omitted Ramadan’s address, the FBI said. The lease agreement also omitted the fact that Ramadan and his wife were married.
The FBI special agent wrote in the complaint that he is “aware that individuals in actual or constructive control of contraband often attempt to conceal such possession.”
Ramadan paid for the storage unit since December, according to the FBI.
The day Ramadan tried to leave the U.S., a man driving a Honda Odyssey matching one registered to Ramadan’s sister was spotted on the storage facility’s surveillance camera entering the business, according to the criminal complaint.
On Wednesday, undercover FBI agents spotted Ramadan riding in his sister’s Honda Odyssey, according to the complaint. Agents raided the storage unit that day. Inside, agents found two rifles and a handgun.
“Ramadan did not tell agents about the Kimber Covert Pro II handgun, but it is in fact registered to him in the state of Michigan,” the agent wrote.
The rifles matched the description of firearms disclosed by Ramadan at the airport.
Also, agents found components of an AR-15 rifle and two semi-automatic handguns.
The handguns had obliterated serial numbers, which is a federal crime, according to the FBI.
More via Source: Ypsilanti man faces charges stemming from counter-terrorism…
An Ypsilanti man faces federal charges, after an FBI counter-terrorism investigation uncovered his connection to a cache of weapons.
Yousef Mohammad Ramadan was arraigned in federal court Saturday in a closed hearing, and was placed in Wayne County Jail until a formal detention hearing is held.
The FBI’s report says they originally approached the 28 year-old Ypsilanti resident August 15th, when he and his family tried to fly to Amman, Jordan aboard a Royal Jordanian Airlines flight. The specific airport from which he planned to depart was not identified.
According to the criminal complaint, Ramadan was interviewed by U.S. Customs Agents, and said he was moving his family to Bethlehem. Ramadan also mentioned during the interview that he owned 2 rifles and a Glock handgun, which were placed in a storage unit before heading to the airport.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel says Ramadan later changed his story, and told investigators he actually hid the firearms with a friend, and said the self-storage unit didn’t exist.
The lead investigator, Ryan Schanberger, says in his report that the weapons were found to be illegally obtained, and the serial numbers had been removed. Upon further investigation, Schanberger and his team discovered Ramadan had lied when he said the storage unit did not exist.
On August 23rd, the FBI searched the unit, discovering multiple unregistered handguns and rifles, including the components of an AR-15 rifle.
Yousef Mohammad Ramadan is charged with knowingly possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number, which carries a penalty of up to 5 years in prison. Ramadan has not been charged with any crime specifically relating to terrorism.
He will appear back in court for his detention hearing Tuesday at 1pm.
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18 Comments
6 years ago
PRAY FOR TRUMP AND SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE YOU CAN. I HAVE VERIFED THE CAMPS, IF YOU DONT BELIEVE, GOOGLE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD TERROR CAMPS OF THE USA. WHAT THEY WONT DO TO COVE THIS UP. PRAY FOR AMERICA.
FROM A REGISTERED DEMOCRAT, A KOREAN WAR VET, AND A CHRISTIAN. I AM AN AMERICAN AND PROUDLY, I VOTED FOR TRUMP. I AM 86 AND HAVE NEVER SEEN A MORE QUALIFIED PERSON TO BE PRESIDENT.
TRUMP NEEDS TO FIRE EVERYONE CONNECTED TO THE DEMOCRATS AND REALLY INVESTIGATE THE REAL MUSLIM PROBLEM WE ARE FACING.
PUBLIC LAW 414, PAGE 2, SECTION 212 WAS PASSED IN 1952 AND THIS LAW SHOULD BE ENFORCED. IT BANS ALL PEOPLE THAT ARE TRYING TO DESTROY US, THAT INCLUDE ALL MUSLIMS.
5 CAMPS IN NORTH VA. CLOSE TO WASHINGTON, A MINIMUM OF 31 MORE CLOSE TO MILITARY BASES, AND A FEMA CAMP, (SOME STATES MORE), IN EVERY STATE. BUILT WITH TAX PAYER $. TO HOUSE MUSLIMS???
READ THE QURAN, THEIR BIBLE. IF THE CAMPS IN N. VA. ARE TO TAKE DC. WE WILL HAVE A LOT OF HEADLESS POLITICIANS.
COULD IT BE THAT OBAMA, AND ALL HIS APPOINTEES, SOROS, HILLIARY, KERRY, FORMER HEAD OF CIA AND FBI, SEVERAL SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES AND THE NEWS MEDIA, HAVE SET US UP FOR OBAMA TO LEAD A MUSLIM INVASION OF OUR COUNTRY? IF NOT,
WHY TRY AND BUY UP ALL AMMO AND TAKE OUR GUNS.
WHY THE 5 MUSLIM CAMPS IN N. VA. JUST ACROSS THE LINE FROM DC???????
WHY, WHILE IN OFFICE, DID HE SET HIS CABINET WITH MOSTLY MUSLIMS.
WHY WAS HILLIARY’S TOP AIDE A RADICAL MUSLIM,
WHY IS THE DEMOCRAT PARTY FOR A OPEN BORDER. COULD IT BE TO GET FREE DOPE, GOODGLE, THE NEW CLINTON CHRONICLES 2015 AND LISTEN TO IT ALL.
WHY ARE ALL MUSLIM CAMPS CLOSE TO OUR MILITARY BASES?
LAST WHY, DID OBAMA SEND BILLIONS TO HIS MUSLIM FRIENDS.
THIS COUNTRY HAD BETTER WAKE UP QUICK.
6 years ago
Reply to
Walter Flatt
Thank you for the great post. As far as I know from the records, there are 39 known “training camps” of these thugs. They are all over and considering to be a “No-Go zones”. I’ve seen a few videos on U-Tube. It’s quite impressing. What’s really sad, that Trump was trying in the beginning to deal with it, but apparently the swamp doesn’t let him. He promised to drain the swamp. But instead, swamp drains him. Look – all the great people who helped him to fight and to win the presidency are out of WH. After they fired Bannon and Gorka- there is no hope. Look at this surrounding now,starting with his son-in-law- Manhattan democrat. Also Cohn, McMaster, Paul Ryan,etc. These people don’t belong to this administration. And shouldn’t drag him to leftists. I voted for Trump and now very disappointed and upset.
6 years ago
Reply to
Walter Flatt
You are right on. And thank you for your service. Something needs to be done and done quick if we are to have any hope for our children’s future in this country. Every day nothing happens, is a day those trying to weaken our country, come closer to obtaining their goals.
6 years ago
when did the muslim and his muslim wife enter our country? which federal bureaucrat allowed these killers into my country, and is an accessory to these felonies? will that bureaucrat be charged with this felony, and if not, why not? who bought the guns? who gave him this guns? why didn’t federal gun control laws protect us from this killer? who gave him the money to fly his family to jordan? how many americans can afford to fly to jordan? as usual, a story that ignores the really important news.
6 years ago
Reply to
Rocinante44
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6 years ago
Jihadis in America are working steadily to takeover and impose sharia drip by drip and Left/Liberal useful idiots are helping them out of ignorance or cash or stupidity.
Welcome to Islamic state of Michiganistan and it will soon have Muslim brotherhood approved Muslim stealth jihadi Governor http://bit.ly/2hGhVxY
unite,support by donating to conservatives online sites, share the info and make sure to never vote for pro-islam politicians on both sides.
6 years ago
Reply to
Suresh
Thanks for the link. In the longer version, she says she taught her children to tell their teachers “I’m not American. I’m muslim” even though they were born here. As you know (which I post for others), hillary clinton and huma abedin are her good friends.
6 years ago
Not at all
6 years ago
Isn’t Michigan home to America’s first Muslim-majority city? Dearborn or something like that? Figures.
D
6 years ago
Interesting story, thanks!
6 years ago
Typical muslim, every word he said was a lie ,then another lie to cover up the first lie, then he was lying while telling lies.
6 years ago
“Given the background of the agents and the assistant U.S. attorney, it
appears to be more than a run-of-the-mill illegal gun case,” said Seamus
Hughes, deputy director of George Washington University’s Program on
Extremism. “The FBI devoted much more resources than they traditionally
would for cases like this.” So, why such a heavy-handed approach then. Probably because there could be some embarrassing or incriminating elements come out against the gov. This guy is much deeper than they say he is.
6 years ago
Close and seize all mosques and muslim community centers and related assets. Why? Because the muslims think of them as army barracks for their infiltrating and invading army. That’s why. Turn all of this property over to local Veteran’s associations to be used for housing, rehab centers, gyms, and community business work centers. Deport and permanently ban anyone who resists or opposes this action. Muslims and Islam are not compatible with modern civilization, and have been attempting global oppression and world domination for over 1000 years. The infiltration is well under way and needs to be stopped.
6 years ago
“The Muslim protagonists of today realize how close they were several times in the past to conquering Europe as the next step in world conquest. What they see today is a very realistic opportunity to succeed where their ancestors failed.”
Islam is the most dangerous thing that the world has ever faced, Stalin and Hitler were insignificant compared to the engulfing and mendacious tentacles of Islam
6 years ago
just a couple of guns, well, three. no big weapons cache…. but his wife is involved too… so… is she charged too?
