Fox News
written by Mike Levine
Tuesday February 23, 2010 - 7:17 PM
Federal authorities have arrested a Virginia man for allegedly helping hundreds of Somalis, possibly including ones with terrorist ties, enter the United States illegally.
Anthony Joseph Tracy, 35, was arrested earlier this month, after admitting to U.S. authorities that he helped about 272 citizens of war-torn Somalia come to the United States illegally, according to documents filed in federal court.
Tracy allegedly set up a business in Kenya, Noor Services Limited, that procured fraudulent Cuban travel visas for Somalis, who would then travel from Kenya to Cuba and, ultimately, to the United States, according to court documents.
He allegedly traveled to Kenya in April 2009 to establish the business, and in the months afterward obtained fraudulent visas for as many as ten Somalis each week, court documents say. He allegedly charged between $100 and $1,000 for the fake documents.
During that same time in Kenya, he told U.S. authorities during a polygraph test earlier this month, an al Qaeda-linked group from Somalia, known as al-Shabaab, approached him for assistance. But, he insisted, he “refused to help them,” according to court documents filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Nevertheless, three weeks before the polygraph test, on Jan. 15, he sent an email to an unnamed Somali citizen saying, “I will be back in Kenya at the end of February, so contact me then and I will assist you inshallah. I helped a lot of Somalis and most are good but there are some who are bad and I leave them to Allah,” according to court documents.
Tracy returned to the United States three days after sending that email, and he was interviewed by FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials upon arrival at JFK International Airport in New York.
It’s unclear what happened in the month afterward, leading up to his arrest on Feb. 5.
A public defender appointed for Tracy noted in court documents that while his client allegedly helped obtain fraudulent documents for Somalis, the government does not allege anything more.
“The government has failed to allege that Mr. Tracy assisted the Somalis to leave Cuba or ever spoke about travel to the United States with any of the Somalis whom he allegedly helped to obtain Cuban travel documents,” Assistant Public Defender Geremy Kamens said.
Tracy converted to Islam while in prison in the 1990s. He first traveled outside the United States in 2008, but information about where and why he traveled at the time is currently “classified,” according to court documents.
Through the social networking site Facebook, authorities have located at least five Somali men and women that, allegedly with Tracy’s help, entered the United States illegally. Those men and women are now living in New York, Tennessee, North Carolina, Washington and Arizona, according to court documents.
Al-Shabaab, which has been fighting to establish an Islamic state in anarchy-stricken Somalia, has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government.
“Al-Shabaab has reportedly declared war on the United Nations and on Western non-governmental organizations,” documents filed in Tracy’s case note. “In early 2010, al-Shabaab declared its alliance with al-Qaeda.”
Tracy is currently being held without bond, accused by federal prosecutors of being a public threat and a flight risk.
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