ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 6, 1997 TAG: 9703060082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE THE ROANOKE TIMES
Two Roanoke businessmen are accused of using sons, nephews and associates to commit murder, arson, extortion and burglary to achieve their ends
Law enforcement officials believe they have broken up a family-run crime ring they say was responsible for eight arsons in the Roanoke Valley since 1990. The group allegedly set fires to collect insurance money and to get back at competitors and enemies.
One of the fires blamed on the group killed a couple in an apartment on 13th Street Southwest in January 1995. The woman and her boyfriend might have witnessed a Molotov cocktail being tossed into a grocery store up the block earlier that day.
Nine suspects in Virginia, Maryland and Georgia were arrested early Wednesday on federal racketeering charges that allege arson, murder, drug distribution, extortion and burglary, among other things. One defendant, a Canadian resident, is at large.
Those arrested were being held without bond Wednesday night.
The 10 were charged in a 12-count indictment that a specially called federal grand jury returned Tuesday. The indictment was sealed until the suspects were arrested.
At a news conference at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Roanoke, officials called Joseph Abed, also known as Joseph Abbott, and his brother, Abed Jamil Abdeljalil, the leaders of what they referred to as the "Abed organized crime family."
Joseph Abed is an entrepreneur who used to operate the Valley View Restaurant and Pancake House and numerous convenience stores in the area. His brother also owns businesses in the Roanoke Valley and is the maintenance supervisor at the Fairfax County Courthouse.
Joseph Abed, 59, vehemently denied any wrongdoing at a hearing Wednesday before a U.S. magistrate, who would not give him bond but scheduled another hearing for next Wednesday.
"These are all fabricated charges," Joseph Abed testified. "I'll wait for my day in court to see what kind of evidence they have."
Federal officials credited Roanoke Detective Bobby Harman with linking names that kept coming up in seemingly unrelated fire and burglary cases.
A federal investigation started about a year ago, Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bondurant said.
Joseph Abed's son, nephews and associates would gather at his pancake house, where Abed "would give directions as to what criminal acts to commit for the week," Special Agent Tom Gallagher of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms testified at the bond hearing.
Among the fires the group is charged with setting is the arson by Molotov cocktail of The Corner Store on 13th Street Southwest before dawn Jan. 13, 1995.
The store became a target after Fahed Tawalbeh, the owner of the rival Speedway Market across the street, was convicted of food stamp fraud, according to the government. As a result, Tawalbeh lost the privilege of accepting food stamps and selling alcohol, which hurt his business.
The Corner Store was burned because it was taking away business from Speedway, the government alleges.
Barbara Marie Hardy and her boyfriend, Michael Todd Thomas, neighbors who may have seen the alleged arsonists, were killed that night when her apartment was firebombed. At first, authorities did not think the apartment fire was set; Fire Chief James Grigsby said Wednesday that they had misread the evidence.
As part of the racketeering charge, three of the younger Abeds - Amar, Rayed and Obadya - are accused of committing first-degree murder. There is no separate murder charge against them, but U.S. Attorney Bob Crouch said the investigation continues.
Tawalbeh denied the charges at his bond hearing, saying he was so worried about the food stamp charges at the time, "how could I think about anything else?"
The owners of Mixers Restaurant and Lounge on Apperson Drive in Salem are alleged to have contracted with Abed to burn down the failing business in April 1994. The arsonists cut holes in the nightclub's roof and poured gas in each end so the fires burned toward the middle. They also left gasoline in another room as a backup, which officials said presented the greatest danger to firefighters who arrived to battle the blaze.
The roof collapsed in flames on a Saturday night, just after the dance floor cleared at the end of a song.
"A few minutes sooner, we would have had 75 dead people," Bondurant said. "If the secondary device [had exploded], we would have had 75 dead firefighters."
Central Motors was the target of an attempted arson in July 1992. It was foiled by Salem police, who pulled into the lot after 70 tires had been slashed and gas poured around the building. Bondurant said Abed was "irate" after the owners of Central Motors outbid him at a foreclosure auction on the property next door, a bar on which Abed was being foreclosed.
Abed's pancake house on South Jefferson Street burned down Dec. 18, 1995, the day the business was going to be evicted.
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN. THE ROANOKE TIMES, FILE 1995. 1. Josephby CNBKirk looks over his charred merchandise after a fire at The Corner
Store in January 1995. 2. (headshot) Abed. color. Graphic: Ciolor
chart and map by staff. KEYWORDS: ROMUR FATALITY MGR