Two men accused of posing as federal law enforcement employees and cozying up to Secret Service agents had amassed a stockpile of police weapons, surveillance equipment, devices to make federal government ID cards and access codes to federal agents’ homes, prosecutors said Friday in arguing that the men should remain detained.
“The Defendants were not merely playing dress-up,” according to a memorandum filed in U.S. District Court in D.C. that alleged the men “engaged in conduct that represented a serious threat to the community, compromised the operations of a federal law enforcement agency, and created a potential risk to national security.”
The new details came as the two men arrested earlier this week, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 35, appeared by video in federal court on Friday for a hearing in which prosecutors sought their detention, calling them a danger to the public.
Taherzadeh and Ali are each charged with impersonating federal law enforcement, specifically with the Department of Homeland Security, and have not entered a plea. Their court-appointed attorneys said they will argue against jailing the men pending trial. The hearing is scheduled to continue Monday.
Authorities are racing round-the-clock to understand the potential scope of the alleged scheme and the vulnerabilities it has created among the Secret Service, federal law enforcement and national security communities in the nation’s capital.
“This investigation is less than two weeks old, and...
South Korea's Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced strengthened measures to combat fraud in social service electronic vouchers. Last year, detected fraudulent claims reached 47.88 billion w...