CUSTOMS: Suspected Saddam spy nabbed at Peace Bridge
Niagara Falls, Ontario, Review The Tonawanda News
A Canadian citizen stopped at the Peace Bridge on Christmas Eve has been charged with conspiring to spy for his native Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
The 47-year-old man crossed the bridge on Christmas Eve and was referred to secondary inspection by agents with U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
At that time, the border guards became aware of an FBI warrant, said Kevin Corsaro, U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman.
FBI agents arrested the man, an Iraqi-born Canadian citizen, at the bridge.
The U.S. Department of Justice is not releasing where the suspect, formerly of Maryland, was living at the time of his arrest.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland and the Assistant Attorney General for National Security alleges the suspect had been receiving payments from the Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) in exchange for information since 2000.
One document indicates the man told IIS officers that Iraqi volunteers were being trained by the U.S. military in Virginia.
He also is alleged to have told his conspirators about his employment activities at the Iraqi Embassy and the ongoing activities of the Iraqi ambassador and other Iraqi government officials who were associated with the interim government following the downfall of the Saddam Hussein regime.
U.S. law enforcement officials learned of his work for the Iraqi government after American troops seized IIS documents following the invasion of Iraq by coalition forces in March 2003, U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein of Maryland and Patrick Rowan, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.
Mouyad Mahmoud Darwish faces charges of conspiring to act as an agent of a foreign government.
He faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
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