Four men charged in plot to blow up JFK airport in New York

US authorities announced on Saturday they foiled a plot to bomb JFK Airport in New York.
One man was arrested in Brooklyn, tow others were caught in Trinidad. A fourth man is sought in Trinidad for his suspected role in the plot.
US authorities said the plot could have caused “unthinkable” devastation.

New York. Deep into Brooklyn, the Lindenwood Diner (photograph: Jean-Cosme Delaloye) seems to be a remnant from the 1960s. Those standing outside the popular restaurant can see the projects at the end of Linden Boulevard (East New York) and watch the planes getting ready to land at nearby JFK airport. Russell Defreitas, 63, was arrested by the FBI at the Lindenwood Diner, at about 10 p.m. on Friday June 1st 2007. Mr Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and former JFK air cargo employee, was accused the following day of plotting to blow up JFK airport. Two other suspected cell members, one of them a former member of Guyana’s parliament, were arrested in Trinidad and fourth man is still on the run.

U.S. authorities described the four men as fundamentalist Muslims with no known ties to Al Qaeda. Authorities said that two of the suspects were members of a Trinidadian radical Muslim group, Jamaat al Muslimeen, which launched an unsuccessful rebellion in 1990 that left 24 dead. They also said the men were motivated by hatred toward the United States.

U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf called the plot to blow up fuel tanks, pipeline and terminals at JFK, one of the most “chilling imaginable”. She said it could have caused “unthinkable” devastation. The plot was foiled in its planning stages thanks in part to an FBI informant Mr Defreitas had met in a Brooklyn mosque. This man, a convicted felon, worked with the authorities in exchange for payments and a reduced sentence. On May 20 2006, he took part with Mr Defreitas in a strategy meeting in Trinidad.

The 33-page complaint describes Mr Defreitas as a man obsessed by the plot whose code name was “chicken farm”. He seemed to have a troubled past according to one of his friends who was quoted in the New York Times on Sunday June 3 2007. According to airport officials, Mr Defreitas, a divorced father of two, had worked as a cargo employee at JFK from 1990 until 1993. He apparently sold books on the street in Queens and had even been homeless for a while. At the time of his arrest, he was living in an apartment on Rockaway Avenue, a poor neighborhood in East Brooklyn, not far away from the Lindenwood Diner.

The suspected ring leader has denied any involvement in the plot. If convicted, Mr Defreitas and the three other members of the “Caribbean cell” could face life in prison.

Jean-Cosme Delaloye
A French version of this story was published on June 3 2007 in 24heures and Tribune de Genève.

Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.