Queens, NY – Terror Probe Intensifies: Raids Expands to Include Friends, Associates To Zazi
- September 22, 2009 - ד' תשרי תש"ע
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Queens, NY – Counter-terrorism agents raided several city apartments on Tuesday, searching for evidence that could link a half-dozen suspected terrorists to a recently uncovered plot to bomb New York.
A U.S. counterterrorism official confirmed “multiple” raids on the homes of friends and associates of Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan immigrant believed to be the brains behind the foiled scheme.
Investigators swooped in on targets that had been under police surveillance since Zazi, his father, and a Queens-based imam were arrested over the weekend.
“We’ve got new bodies – eight more people we’re looking at,” a source close to the investigation told the Daily News.
Between 16 and 20 men have been on police radar – and their haunts in the city were being watched around the clock, sources said.
Also, the NYPD prepared an 11-minute video for their officers about peroxide-based explosives.
“While most homes will have one or two bottles, it would very odd to find a large amount of bottles of this substance,” Lt. Mark Torre, head of the bomb squad, narrates on the video.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly did not mention the video or the raids at a briefing. He also declined to address reports that detectives were combing Queens storage facilities looking for explosive chemicals.
“This investigation has many aspects to it,” Kelly said. “We’re looking into different areas.”
Meanwhile, the News has learned that as a result of the Zazi arrest, security is being beefed up at G-20 economic summit of industrialized nations, which begins Thursday in Pittsburgh.
The FBI also has been quietly contacting Washington area Afghan immigrants to find out what they know about Zazi and his cohorts, according to a former intelligence official.
The Daily News has reported that Zazi, 25, the prime terror suspect, confessed he was a jihadist hell-bent on killing Americans.
The News also reported that NYPD investigators, in coordination with the FBI, hit chemical and fertilizer companies looking for customers who bought bulk and paid cash – and were also showing up at storage centers in Long Island City.
At the same time, the Department of Homeland Security issued a nationwide bulletin asking cops to be on the look out for suspicious activities at storage facilities.
In a city short on space, investigators suspect terrorists would turn the private units into bomb making labs where they could mix chemicals needed to make explosives.
“Operation Nexus” took on an extra urgency after raids on Queens apartments Zazi visited around the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks turned up knapsacks and cell phones.
While the exact targets are not known, the find raised the specter of simultaneous blasts like the 2004 attack that killed 191 commuters in Spain.
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