Port-of-Spain, Trinidad – A Guyanese suspect in an alleged plot to bomb a fuel pipeline feeding New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport surrendered to police Tuesday in Trinidad, a police official said.
Abdel Nur turned himself in at a police station outside the Trinidadian capital, Port-of-Spain, police spokeswoman Wendy Campbell told The Associated Press.
He is the fourth man arrested in the alleged plot, including a former opposition member of Guyana’s parliament and a former airport air cargo employee who was arrested in New York.
Trinidadian Police Commissioner Trevor Paul had warned Monday that Nur should be considered armed and dangerous, and he appealed to the public for help in finding him.
“I am confident that the pressure brought to bear by the Trinidadian police authorities contributed to his surrender,” said Mark Mershon, the head of the FBI in New York.
Nur is the uncle of former world welterweight boxing champion Andrew “Six Heads” Lewis, one of Guyana’s most famous citizens, according to several newspapers – including one that quoted the boxer himself.
U.S. authorities claim the alleged plotters unsuccessfully sought support in Trinidad from Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Islamic group that staged a deadly coup attempt in the Caribbean nation in 1990.
In addition to Nur, Trinidadian authorities are holding two suspects: Abdul Kadir, the former Guyanese lawmaker, and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad. They are fighting extradition to the United States.
The other suspect named, Russell Defreitas, is a former JFK air cargo employee who was arrested in New York. He is a U.S. citizen native to Guyana, a former Dutch and British colony on the northern coast of South America.
The leader of Jamaat al Muslimeen told The Associated Press on Monday that his group had no connection the plot.
“I know nothing about these men, and I have nothing to do with whatever they are being charged for,” said Yasin Abu Bakr, the longtime head of Jamaat al Muslimeen.
Bakr would not say whether he knew any of the suspects.
The case was broken open by an informant – a twice-convicted drug dealer who found himself in the midst of what investigators called a terrorist plot conceived as more devastating than the Sept. 11 attacks.
Six men indicted in alleged Ft. Dix plot
Mount Laurel, N.J. – A federal grand jury indicted six men Tuesday on charges of plotting to kill soldiers in a raid on Fort Dix.
Prosecutors charged the men last month with planning the attack, which was to use mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and guns. The assault never took place.
The suspects, all foreign-born and in their 20s, have been held without bail in a federal detention center since they were arrested May 7. They will be able to enter pleas at an arraignment this week or next.
Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, Serdar Tatar and the brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka are charged in the indictment with conspiring to kill military personnel, which is punishable by life in prison.
Dritan and Shain Duka also are charged with possession of machine guns. And all three Duka brothers are charged with possession of weapons by illegal immigrants.
A sixth man, Agron Abdullahu, is charged with providing weapons to illegal immigrants, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
