ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 8, 1997 TAG: 9703100039
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE THE ROANOKE TIMES
An ATF special agent testified that an informant reported that one defendant sent $400,000 to Jordan in one year.
Speedway Market owner Fahed Tawalbeh, one of the defendants in a racketeering case involving the Abed family of Roanoke, has wired hundreds of thousands of dollars overseas, according to an agent for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Tawalbeh sent $400,000 back to the Middle East in one year alone, the ATF agent testified this week.
But federal officials in Roanoke say they have seen no evidence that the money found its way into the hands of terrorists.
Tawalbeh, a Jordanian citizen, testified at his bond hearing Wednesday that he regularly wired about $400 a month to his younger brother, a college student who relied on him for support. Once he wired $2,000 and once $4,000, he testified.
But ATF Special Agent Tom Gallagher testified that an informant reported helping Tawalbeh wire money to Jordan for a house he was building and that, in one year, he sent $400,000 there. Tawalbeh denied that, saying he didn't have a house in Jordan.
Tawalbeh, 37, owns the Neighborhood Store on Marshall Avenue Southwest and the building that houses Speedway on 13th Street Southwest. He no longer runs the Speedway, which he leased to someone else after losing his privileges of accepting food stamps and selling alcohol in 1994.
Federal authorities suspect the Abed defendants of wiring significant amounts of money overseas, but they have no reason to believe that the money went to anyone other than family members, they said.
A report Friday in Newsday quoted anonymous federal officials in Washington as saying they had evidence the Roanoke defendants were funneling the money to terrorist front organizations.
But U.S. Attorney Bob Crouch said Friday that those allegations are not part of the Roanoke investigation into the Abed family, which led to the indictment of 10 people on federal racketeering charges this week. Federal authorities in Roanoke said they don't know where the information in the Newsday story came from.
An FBI spokesman in Washington would not comment on whether its anti-terrorism division was investigating the Abed family, citing bureau policy against discussing the existence of investigations.
Newsday, a Long Island, N.Y., newspaper whose Washington bureau reported the terrorism allegations, said one of the "front organizations" receiving money was SAAR, which supports the militant Palestinian group Hamas. SAAR is an international conglomerate with banking interests in the United States. It includes a foundation based in Northern Virginia that has invested heavily in real estate.
Attorneys for Tawalbeh and Joseph Abed - identified in the federal indictment as a leader of the alleged crime family - were out of their offices Friday and did not return calls seeking comment.
Abed's brother, Abed Jamil Abdeljalil, was denied bond by a U.S. magistrate in Alexandria on Friday. Bond hearings are scheduled for two more of the defendants Monday. The defendants who were arrested in Maryland, Georgia and Northern Virginia will be brought to Roanoke in the next few weeks, Crouch said.
Members of the Abed family, Tawalbeh and others were arrested Wednesday on federal racketeering charges that allege arson, murder, drug distribution, extortion and burglary, among other things. One of the 10 indicted, a Canadian resident, is at large.
The group is accused of setting eight fires in the Roanoke Valley to collect insurance money and to get back at competitors and enemies.
Tawalbeh is accused of conspiring with the Abeds to firebomb The Corner Store, a competing convenience store across the street from Speedway, in January 1995. A man and woman who might have seen the firebombing were killed that same day, when their neighboring apartment was set ablaze to eliminate them as witnesses, the indictment alleges.
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Color map by KRT. Chart by staff: Arsons linked to theby CNB"Abed Organization.' KEYWORDS: MGR