Posted on 10/26/2001 6:57:05 PM PDT by grimalkin
CHARLOTTE AMALIE, U.S. Virgin Islands (October 26, 2001 9:09 p.m. EDT) - U.S. agents arrested four Jordanians at a hotel in St. Thomas Friday, and a court charged the men with entering the United States illegally.
It was the third action this week by a multi-agency U.S. task force on the territory that has been targeting illegal immigrants from Arab nations.
On Wednesday, a group of eight Syrians were arrested by the task force at another hotel on St. Thomas, the main island in the Caribbean territory.
On Tuesday, as many as 30 federal agents searched and seized evidence at several Arab-owned stores in separate raids. Among the stores raided were three supermarkets partly owned by a Palestinian immigrant Fathi Yusuf, a U.S. citizen, who pleaded guilty last year to hiring three illegal Palestinian immigrants.
Yusuf did not talk to reporters at the time, but two other storeowners said the agents asked questions about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hugh Mabe would not say if the detentions or searches were linked to the worldwide criminal investigation triggered by the attacks.
The Jordanians arrested Friday, who said they arrived from French St. Martin, were picked up Friday morning by agents from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and local police, according to court papers.
Some of the men said they arrived in January of last year and some said they arrived in February, according to court papers. They were held without bail for a hearing in U.S. District Court in St. Thomas on Oct. 30.
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