Author: Larry Hanover, Lisa Coryell
and Kevin Shea, Staff Writers
Publication: The Times, Trenton,
New Jersey
Date: November 3, 2001
The federal investigation into the
bioterrorism attack on America led to North Olden Avenue in Trenton yesterday,
where authorities raided an apartment and detained a Pakistani man before
testing the residence for anthrax.
Authorities also took swabs of a
curbside mail drop box almost directly in front of the building, which
they searched for about five hours. They confiscated several garbage bags
of evidence.
The morning search, handled largely
by investigators in HazMat suits, marked the second public example of activity
in the Trenton area this week by the FBI, the federal Immigration and Naturalization
Service and postal inspectors.
U.S. postal inspectors had told
The Times on Thursday the investigation of three anthrax-laced letters
carrying Trenton postmarks has narrowed in scope in the Trenton region.
At a briefing in Washington yesterday,
FBI Director Bob Mueller said the bureau is pursuing more than 1,000 leads,
including 100 that have led agents into other countries, he said. More
than 2,000 interviews have been conducted.
Mueller urged citizens to report
anything that may help track down "those responsible for using anthrax
to murder Americans." He asked people to study the handwriting on the anthrax
envelopes to see if they may know the author.
"The current evidence puts us at
mail boxes in Trenton, where the three critical letters were mailed," he
said. "And it expands beyond there, and some of the leads may well take
us overseas. But the thrust of the investigation is where those letters
were mailed and trying to track back from those mailboxes to the individual
who is responsible for putting those letters with the anthrax into those
mailboxes in Trenton."
However, Sandra Carroll, spokeswoman
for the FBI's Newark office, said the public should not draw conclusions
from yesterday's search or one earlier this week in a Hamilton apartment
complex.
"Information that we received over
the past few weeks sent us to the last few locations," Carroll said. "There
are other investigations that we are continuing to conduct, although the
majority of the work force is focused on the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax
case."
She said federal authorities are
pursuing the investigation in area neighborhoods in ways not necessarily
visible to the public.
The raid yesterday of a building
in an old Polish neighborhood took place a mile and a half from a search
Monday of the Greenwood Village Apartments in Hamilton.
It is also 3 miles from the route
of an anthrax-infected a West Trenton letter carrier and 7 miles from the
Route 130 distribution center in Hamilton, where the mail containing anthrax
was processed.
A local law enforcement source,
who spoke on condition of anonymity, said federal authorities are strictly
enforcing immigration laws to get information from foreigners in the country
on visas.
Another source said authorities
are still unsure whether this week's raids have a connection to the three
anthrax mailings to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw, Senate Majority Leader
Tom Daschle and the New York Post.
- - - - -
The INS yesterday detained Allah
Rakha, 42, and confiscated his passport and car, said his brother, Ilyas
Chaudhry, who lives at the North Olden apartment with Rakha and two Pakistani
friends.
FBI agents asked Chaudhry what kind
of schooling he received while growing up in his native country, inquired
if he had ever worked in a laboratory and asked if he had any friends in
Florida.
Efren Jimenez, owner of Tico Verde
at 1001 N. Olden Ave. and landlord of the six-unit apartment building,
said an FBI agent watched the mailbox near the apartment for the previous
two days, giving no indication of the raid to come.
Chaudhry, 34, when asked what agents
told him they were testing for, responded: "Anthrax."
Chaudhry said he was taken to Newark
for questioning. He said the situation is a mix-up stemming from his brother
marrying and moving from New York City to Trenton in 1998.
Trenton police officers, who guarded
the scene for the federal agents, also guarded Rakha's car, a Toyota Camry
parked on Indiana Avenue, until it was towed away at 12:40 p.m.
INS spokesman Kerry Gill said the
agency can neither confirm nor deny any information on detainees.
The FBI on Monday detained at least
two men at the Greenwood Village Apartments in Hamilton, less than a block
from the city limits, carting away a number of garbage bags of evidence.
Mohammad Aslam Pervez, former manager
of the Trenton Train Station newsstand and a former Greenwood Village resident,
remains in jail on charges of lying to an FBI agent regarding the nature
of more than $110,000 in checks and money orders written in 1995 and 1996.
Pervez, 37-year-old naturalized
American citizen of Pakistani descent who moved to Jersey City in 1998,
is the roommate of Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan, two Indian
men being detained regarding a possible role in the World Trade Center
attacks.
- - - - -
Azmath and Khan were arrested the
day after the Sept. 11 attacks aboard an Amtrak train in Fort Worth, Texas.
They were carrying nearly $6,000, box-cutters and hair dye.
Chaudhry said he was not angry at
yesterday's line of questioning or the search of his North Olden apartment.
"I'm not upset. They're just doing
their jobs," he said. "I'm sure they're not going to find anything.
When agents left after 2 p.m., nearly
five hours after they'd arrived, Chaudhry said they took with them a book
written in Urdu, the Pakistani native language.
"I don't know what they're going
to do with that," he said.
Chaudhry, who said he is a permanent
resident of the United States and has applied for citizenship, recently
returned from a trip to Pakistan.
Chaudhry said he and his brother,
along with friends Asim Nadeem and Malik Qasir, have lived in the North
Olden Avenue apartment for more than six years. He said he didn't know
why they were being singled out for a search.
"They're going after everybody,
any Pakistanian," he said.
The FBI's Carroll said the agency
is not simply going after people with INS problems.
Jimenez said he noticed nothing
unusual about the four Pakistanis except that they pay their rent in cash.
"I don't think they'll find anything
there. . . . They (the Pakistanis) don't care if we go in (for repairs).
I don't think they hide anything," Jimenez said.
Less than an hour after federal
agents swabbed the curbside drop box, letter carrier Desmond Jones of Willingboro
pulled up to open it and remove the mail for delivery as usual.
Jones, who wore a mask and plastic
gloves, said the situation has made him jittery.
"But I've still got to pay my bills,"
he said.
- - - - -
Rakha and Chaudhry's roommates,
Asim Nadeem and Malik Qasir, both 33, were pumping gas yesterday at the
Exxon station at Route 31 and Delaware Avenue in Pennington.
Nadeem, who said the four men grew
up together in Gujrat, Pakistan, was smiling and took the matter in stride
although he was anxious to get home to learn firsthand what had occurred.
His only news, he said, had come from Chaudhry in a morning phone call.
"I'm not angry," Nadeem said. "They're
doing their job.
"They checked my apartment for anything
to do with anthrax, but I have no idea why. I've been here for 11 years.
I've been in Pennington for seven years at the same station. Half of Pennington
knows me."
Nadeem said Rakha once worked at
the gas station as well. Nadeem said he did not know where Rakha works
now.
Qasir, who speaks limited English,
said he could not understand the reason for the search when, as far as
he knew, everyone's visa papers were in order.
"We have everything," Qasir said.
Mohammad N. Khan, 43, of Bangladesh
is another example of an immigrant receiving close questioning from the
FBI and INS on his visa status.
Khan, owner of Clothing Wholesale
Outlet on Hamilton Avenue in Trenton, said agents questioned him for three
straight days on Oct. 22-24 but have not contacted him since.
Khan said he was stunned to be questioned
about flu-like symptoms and knowledge of anthrax.
"One (agent) just said, `If we find
out you know about anthrax, we'll have to catch you and send you back to
your country,' " Khan said. "I said prove it."
They also questioned his immigration
status. Khan's attorney, Richard Gelade, said officials apparently were
satisfied after their questioning.
(Staff writers Joel Bewley, Albert
Raboteau and Linda Stein contributed to this report.)
