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Lebanon native, Jama Yousef was sentenced to 12 years in prison by
Manhattan federal court on Thursday for attempting to provide military
grade weapons to Colombian terrorist group, the FARC in exchange for a
ton of cocaine.
The FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) is designated as a foreign terrorist group By U.S state department.
According to indictments, Yousef has agreed to provide AR-15 and M-16 assault rifles, M-60 machine guns, C-4 explosives, Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and other military hardware claiming that they were stolen from U.S forces in Iraq.
Full text of FBI release below….
The FBI announced that Jamal Yousef, a/k/a “Talal Hassan Ghantou,” a native of Lebanon, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 12 years in prison for conspiring to provide military-grade weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the FARC), a foreign terrorist organization, in exchange for over a ton of cocaine. Yousef pled guilty in May 2012 to one count of providing material support to the FARC before U.S. District Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska. U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan imposed today’s sentence.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “Jamal Yousef was ready, willing, and able to provide an arsenal of weapons and explosives to people he believed to be part of a terrorist organization, dedicated, in part, to killing Americans. Thanks once again to our partnerships with law enforcement both here and abroad, he will now go to prison.”
According to indictments filed in this case in Manhattan federal court:
The FARC, which was designated by the U.S. Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization, is a highly structured international terrorist group that is dedicated to the violent overthrow of the democratically elected government of Colombia. Organized as a military group, the FARC actively engages in narcotics trafficking as a financing mechanism, and has evolved into the world’s largest supplier of cocaine. For at least the past five years, the FARC has been responsible for violent acts committed against U.S. persons and commercial and property interests in foreign jurisdictions—including in Colombia—in order to dissuade the United States from continuing its efforts to disrupt the FARC’s cocaine manufacturing and trafficking activities.
From July 2008 through July 2009, in exchange for more than a ton of cocaine, Yousef and others agreed to provide individuals whom he believed to be representatives of the FARC, but were actually confidential informants working with the DEA, with AR-15 and M-16 assault rifles, M-60 machine guns, C-4 explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, and other military items they claimed had been stolen from U.S. forces in Iraq. Yousef knew that the FARC was engaged in terrorist activity when he made this agreement. He was arrested in Honduras on August 2009 and subsequently transported to the Southern District of New York.
The FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) is designated as a foreign terrorist group By U.S state department.
According to indictments, Yousef has agreed to provide AR-15 and M-16 assault rifles, M-60 machine guns, C-4 explosives, Rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and other military hardware claiming that they were stolen from U.S forces in Iraq.
Full text of FBI release below….
The FBI announced that Jamal Yousef, a/k/a “Talal Hassan Ghantou,” a native of Lebanon, was sentenced today in Manhattan federal court to 12 years in prison for conspiring to provide military-grade weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (the FARC), a foreign terrorist organization, in exchange for over a ton of cocaine. Yousef pled guilty in May 2012 to one count of providing material support to the FARC before U.S. District Chief Judge Loretta A. Preska. U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan imposed today’s sentence.
Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said, “Jamal Yousef was ready, willing, and able to provide an arsenal of weapons and explosives to people he believed to be part of a terrorist organization, dedicated, in part, to killing Americans. Thanks once again to our partnerships with law enforcement both here and abroad, he will now go to prison.”
According to indictments filed in this case in Manhattan federal court:
The FARC, which was designated by the U.S. Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization, is a highly structured international terrorist group that is dedicated to the violent overthrow of the democratically elected government of Colombia. Organized as a military group, the FARC actively engages in narcotics trafficking as a financing mechanism, and has evolved into the world’s largest supplier of cocaine. For at least the past five years, the FARC has been responsible for violent acts committed against U.S. persons and commercial and property interests in foreign jurisdictions—including in Colombia—in order to dissuade the United States from continuing its efforts to disrupt the FARC’s cocaine manufacturing and trafficking activities.
From July 2008 through July 2009, in exchange for more than a ton of cocaine, Yousef and others agreed to provide individuals whom he believed to be representatives of the FARC, but were actually confidential informants working with the DEA, with AR-15 and M-16 assault rifles, M-60 machine guns, C-4 explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, and other military items they claimed had been stolen from U.S. forces in Iraq. Yousef knew that the FARC was engaged in terrorist activity when he made this agreement. He was arrested in Honduras on August 2009 and subsequently transported to the Southern District of New York.
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