Russell Defreitas, centre, and Abdul Kadir, left, are seen in this court sketch from 2010
Guyanese-born U.S. citizen Russell Defreitas was sentenced to life in prison for leading a foiled plot to blow up New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport.
Defreitas, 67, a former cargo worker at the airport, was sentenced on February 19, by U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry in Brooklyn, New York. A jury found Defreitas and a co-defendant guilty in August.
“This was his baby,” Irizarry said. “This was his plan.”
The attacks, hatched by Defreitas in 2006, were designed to blow up fuel lines and tanks and, ultimately, “the whole of Kennedy”, Defreitas said in a taped conversation. The plotters circulated the plan to an international network of Muslim extremists, according to the government. The airport, the largest in the New York area, is in the borough of Queens.
Abdul Kadir, 59, a former member of Guyana’s parliament, was tried with Defreitas and was sentenced in December last year to life in prison. Abdel Nur, 60, a Guyanese citizen who pleaded guilty to aiding the plot, was sentenced last month to 15 years in prison, the maximum punishment he could receive. A fourth defendant, Kareem Ibrahim, 65, a citizen of Trinidad, is slated to be tried in April.
The plotters conducted surveillance of the airport, including videotaping its buildings, and sought expert advice, financing and explosives, said prosecutors in the office of U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch. The plot was foiled in the planning stages with the aid of an informant, Steven Francis, who infiltrated the group and testified at the trial.
Mildred Whalen, a lawyer for Defreitas, told the judge on Thursday that “this was a group that was aspirational rather than operational. He did nothing other than talk.”
Defreitas declined to speak at the hearing.
Federal jury had convicted Defreitas and Kadir in July 2010 after a nine-week trial. The evidence at trial established that Defreitas, a naturalised United States citizen from Guyana, was the mastermind behind the idea to attack JFK Airport and its fuel tanks and pipelines. He intended to draw on his prior experience working at the airport as a cargo handler.
In 2006 and 2007, Defreitas recruited Kadir and others to join the plot during multiple trips to Guyana and Trinidad. Between trips, Defreitas engaged in video surveillance of JFK Airport and transported the footage back to Guyana to show Kadir and their co-conspirators. Kadir, a trained engineer with connections to militant groups in Iran and Venezuela, provided the conspirators with links to individuals with terrorist experience, advice on explosive materials, and a bank account through which to finance the terrorist attack.
According to the trial evidence, Defreitas and his fellow plot members attempted to enlist support from prominent international terrorist groups and leaders, including Abu Bakr, leader of the Trinidadian militant group Jamaat Al Muslimeen, and Adnan El Shukrijumah, an al Qaeda leader, as well as the Iranian revolutionary leadership.
During cross-examination at the trial, Kadir admitted that he regularly passed information to Iranian authorities about sensitive topics, including the Guyanese military, and he believed himself bound to follow instructions from Iranian religious leaders.
On June 1, 2007, Defreitas was arrested in New York, and Kadir was arrested in Trinidad aboard a plane headed to Venezuela, en route to Iran. He was subsequently extradited to the United States.
The specific charges Defreitas was convicted of were: conspiracy to attack a public transportation system, conspiracy to destroy a building by fire or explosive, conspiracy to attack aircraft and aircraft materials, conspiracy to destroy international airport facilities, and conspiracy to attack a mass transportation facility.
“Russell Defreitas plotted to commit a terrorist attack that he hoped would rival 9/11,” stated United States attorney Lynch. “But law enforcement detected and thwarted the plot, saving lives. Now our courts have dispensed justice by handing out the life sentence that Defreitas richly deserves.”
Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York for its role in investigating and prosecuting the case, as well as to the Guyanese and Trinidadian law enforcement authorities who assisted with the investigation and apprehension of the defendants. (Bloomberg)
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