The affidavit to help the arrest of Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali is photographed Wednesday, April 6, 2022. Federal prosecutors have charged the two men they are saying had been posing as federal agents, giving free residences and different presents to U.S. Secret Service agents, together with one who labored on the first girl’s safety element. Both had been taken into custody as greater than a dozen FBI agents charged right into a luxurious apartment constructing in Southeast Washington on Wednesday night.
Jon Elswick | AP
The two men arrested for posing as Department of Homeland Security agents tried to ship evidence out of their apartment and enlist the assist of a federal legislation enforcement agent after being tipped off to an investigation, in accordance to a memo laying out extra evidence that prosecutors imagine warrants detention with out bail.
Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36, had been taken into custody Wednesday. The men are being charged with impersonating DHS legislation enforcement agents in Washington, D.C. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Rothstein mentioned extra fees of conspiracy might be lodged towards the men.
The newest submitting mentioned Taherzadeh utilized to be an armed particular police officer, or SPO, and was denied in March 2019, due to his prior misdemeanor conviction for home violence. Taherzadeh later was permitted to receive a fee as an unarmed SPO, however that expired when he didn’t present paperwork in help of relicensing in December 2021.
Ali additionally utilized for an SPO fee round October 2020, however was denied primarily based on his prior arrests for assault of a member of the family and malicious wounding and abduction by power.
The FBI mentioned in an affidavit that then each men, from as early as February 2020 till their arrest, allegedly pretended to be agents working for DHS, and that they carried insignias and firearms as half of that deception. The affidavit mentioned the men did this “to ingratiate themselves with members of federal legislation enforcement and the protection group.”
Even if the men had been licensed as SPOs, prosecutors argued their possession and use of weapons, ammunition, and different instruments of legislation enforcement such as a dynamic entry equipment “far exceed the scope of SPO licensure, additional evidencing the lengths of their deception and demonstrating their dangerousness.”
Prosecutors mentioned they interviewed a former U.S. Marine, who the pair tried to recruit on the foundation of their false DHS credentials. The unnamed witness alleged he noticed unlawful weapons in Taherzadeh and Ali’s presence, together with an AR-15/M4 variant computerized rifle with an unlawful suppressor and an AR pistol.
Neither of the men had a license to carry a firearm exterior of their houses, the submitting mentioned. Law enforcement officers additionally recovered unlawful high-capacity magazines.
After Taherzadeh was knowledgeable of the authorities’s investigation, prosecutors say that he and/or Ali tried to conceal evidence by transport objects out of their apartment complicated. Law enforcement officers discovered UPS labels and transport supplies whereas carrying out their search, “which raised concern that evidence was being secreted from the premises.”
Prosecutors mentioned their considerations proved to be true.
On Thursday, a United States Secret Service uniformed division officer obtained a package deal despatched by way of UPS Next Day Air with a return label that corresponded to Ali and Taherzadeh’s apartment complicated. Within the field had been firearm circumstances; one firearm case contained three ammunition magazines. In addition, the package deal additionally contained a cigar case with 4 cigars.
“This is in keeping with the prior sample and follow of offering federal legislation enforcement agents with presents and objects of worth, and means that Taherzadeh and/or Ali shipped the package deal to the USSS Uniformed Division Officer in an try to corruptly enlist him in secreting evidence,” the submitting mentioned.
Prosecutors alleged Friday that the men “(*2*)” Secret Service personnel assigned to defend first girl Jill Biden and the White House by “lavishing” them with presents that included rent-free residences.
— CNBC’s Dan Mangan contributed to this report.