Muslim terrorist slugs keep crawling out of the woodwork.
When federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents served a search warrant last Wednesday on a storage unit in Ferndale, Wash., just south of the Canadian border, they discovered more than $30,000 worth of high-powered weaponry, including a .50-caliber sniper rifle.
The find was detailed in an affidavit filed by the Western District Court of Washington against illegal alien Iranian Hamid Malekpour, also known as Oliver King, about 35 years old.
Much of the weaponry was packed into boxes bearing shipping labels addressed to McMinnville Hunting & Police Supplies Inc., the affidavit states. The obscure business, located in a shuttered, unsigned office at 1900 N.E. Highway 99W, is owned by Amir Zarandi.
McMinnville does not require business licensing, according to City Attorney Candice Haines, but the state does. The gun dealership has been registered with the Secretary of State’s Corporation Division in the past, but missed its scheduled renewal date of May 11.
A small sign on the door indicates hours are by appointment only. Its website dead-ends with “under construction” notices.
Yamhill County Sheriff’s Capt. Ken Summers said he’d never heard of the business, and knew of no one in the department who had.He said the sheriff’s office buys its firearms from Keith’s Sporting Goods in Gresham. He said he knows of no law enforcement agency that might deal with Zarandi.
City and county law enforcement personnel were also in the dark about the federal activity conducted in connection with the shop — and weren’t particularly happy about that.
Capt. Dennis Marks said McMinnville police were not contacted by ICE agents regarding the surveillance work they were engaged in, or about King.
……He (King) told Customs and Border Protection officers he was entering to pick up his wife at a Target store at a mall in nearby Bellingham. However, agents have determined the store actually closed prior to King’s arrival at the border.He presented a Canadian passport that had just been issued that morning. When questioned, he said his old passport had gone through the washing machine.
However, a subsequent search turned up his original Canadian passport, which showed no evidence of water damage and wouldn’t expire until 2013. It contained three visas for travel to Iran, two issued last year and one earlier this year.
According to the passport stamps, King traveled to Iran in the spring of both years. One of the visas is so current it won’t expire until next month.Suspicious about King’s Target and passport stories, ICE agents began tailing him when he crossed the border. They quickly determined he had lied about going to the mall, because he drove past without stopping or picking anyone up.
He continued south on Interstate 5 to Chehalis, where he slept for a few hours. Then he drove south into Oregon, where he was tailed to the McMinnville gun shop.
He was seen entering the office complex, emerging with several cardboard boxes and loading them into his vehicle. He then headed back north, not stopping until he reached the storage facility in Ferndale, about 10 miles south of the border.
Confronted there by agents, King initially agreed to let them search his vehicle. That search turned up two shotguns, two semiautomatic handguns and about 480 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition, which they believe he picked up in McMinnville.
When King revoked permission for any further search without a warrant, the agents obtained a warrant to search a storage unit he was renting at the facility. In it, they found a .50-caliber sniper rifle, two .308-caliber sniper rifles, three .300-caliber sniper rifles, eight law enforcement style .223-caliber rifles, three Glock semi-automatic handguns, 100 .223-caliber magazines, 3,800 rounds of .223-caliber ammunition, various high-powered scopes and other equipment.
……Authorities aren’t sure yet of the legality of the King name, but say he was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1975 as Hamid Malekpour.
……King would not have been allowed into the U.S. at Blaine had he given accurate and true information as to his purpose for his visit — to engage in the interstate possession and transportation of firearms and ammunition, the affidavit states. Thus he is in the country illegally, it alleges.
http://www.newsregister.com/article/44432-arms%20cache%20tied%20mac
The security at the Canadian border is just a little better than the one between the U.S. and Mexico.
The ICE’s refusal to communicate with local law enforcement almost helped him across.
If Malekpour had been just a tad smarter, those weapons would have made their way into the country.
This would-be jihadist tripped over his own stupidity, otherwise, he would have probably never been caught.
More at The Examiner:
http://www.examiner.com/x-35976-Conservative-Examiner~y2010m6d6-Media-ignore-Iranian-caught-smuggling-arsenal-of-sniper-rifles-across-border