In what is being trumpeted as a joint investigative success story by Colombian and US law enforcement personnel, 10 foreign nationals were indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami, Florida on charges of attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and of alien smuggling. According to a Department of Justice press release, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, posing as leftist FARC guerrillas , obtained counterfeit Colombian and Spanish passports that would allow them to enter the US illegally. Eight foreign nationals are being held in Colombia , pending approval of extradition requests to the US . They have been identified as: Palestinian native Jalal Saadat Moheisen, and Colombians Victor Daniel Salamanca, Bernardo Valdes Londo?o, Carmen Maria Ponton Caro, Jos? Tito Ulloa Melo, Jorge de los Reyes Bautista Matinez, Nicholas Ricardo Tapasco Romer, and Edizon Ramirez Gamboa. Two other defendants?Luis Alfredo Daza Morales and Julio Ceasar Lopez?are being sought by the Colombian government. Acting Colombian Attorney General Jorge Armando Otalora (see photo in previous column) asserted that Colombian detectives have obtained evidence that the criminal gang may have supplied false documents to members of al-Qaeda and Hamas , although the US’ DOJ refutes such claims.

During the course of the investigation, the defendants arranged and facilitated travel for ICE agents from Colombia to the US. The fraudulent Colombian and Spanish passports allowed them to enter the US without a visa. Although DOJ insists that no other foreign terrorist organization had links to the counterfeiters, the mere possibility of such links should be of concern to the US government. The ease with which ICE agents were able to obtain false documentation is alarming. This case highlights both the increasing risk of terrorists entering the US via South American countries and the growth of sophisticated criminal organizations within South America.