Fourth 'JFK plot' man surrenders
The fourth man wanted over an alleged plot to blow up New York's JFK
airport has surrendered to police in Trinidad and Tobago, officials
there say.
Abdel Nur of Guyana turned himself in at a police station at Diego
Martin in western Trinidad, police said.
He was the only one of the suspects in the alleged plot still at
large.
Two men are already being held in Trinidad fighting moves to
extradite them to the US and one man is in custody in New York.
The four men are accused of conspiring to blow up fuel tanks and
pipelines serving the airport, one of the world's busiest.
Muslim organisation
Mr Nur surrendered after photographs of him appeared on all newspaper
front pages and on television.
Mark Mershon, the head of the FBI in New York praised the Trinidadian
police authorities for the detention.
"I am confident that the pressure brought to bear by the Trinidadian
police authorities contributed to his surrender," Mr Mershon said.
US police announced on Saturday that they had broken up the alleged
plot. Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad and Abdul Kadir, a former member of
parliament of Guyana, were arrested in Trinidad.
The third suspect was arrested in Brooklyn late on Friday and named
as Russell Defreitas, originally from Guyana.
Mr Kadir and Mr Ibrahim made their first court appearance in Trinidad
on Monday. The judge remanded them in custody until 11 June when a bail
hearing was due and an extradition hearing was set for 2 August.
US authorities said both men were associates of Jamaat al Muslimeen,
a Muslim organisation behind a coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990.
Mr Defreitas was arraigned in New York City on Saturday and is being
held pending a bail hearing on Wednesday.
The alleged plot - which is said not to have gone past the planning
stages - involved blowing up the airport's fuel tanks and pipeline.
The pipeline is 40 miles (64km) long and carries jet fuel from New
Jersey and through the New York boroughs of Staten Island, Brooklyn and
Queens.
The pipeline serves two other airports in the area - LaGuardia and
Newark Liberty. The alleged plot was brought to light when Mr Defreitas
recruited an FBI informant to help him in the plan, US officials said.
NY Times
|