'FBI agents told me to go fishing for drugs and guns'
Terror suspect Ilyas Ali recalled yesterday how he was given air tickets, hotel rooms and thousands of US dollars by the FBI, and then told to go on a 'fishing trip' for drugs and guns.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post at the Lai Chi Kok reception centre, where he has been held for four months, Ali, 55, said: 'I don't know anything about drugs or guns. I am not even very religious. I was too busy trying to make a living, cutting meat and selling groceries.'
Ali, a delicatessen owner from St Paul, Minnesota, is one of three men facing extradition to the US after allegedly offering undercover FBI agents five tonnes of hashish and 590kg of heroin in exchange for anti-aircraft Stinger missiles to be sold to the al-Qaeda terror network.
Indian-born Ali, Syed Saadat Ali Faraz, 54, and Muhammed Abid Afridi, 29, both from Peshawar, Pakistan, earlier this month agreed to be extradited to San Diego to face trial in the US District Court after they were arrested in the Conrad Hotel on September 20.
Ali, who invited the Post to visit him in prison, said he was the innocent victim of an FBI sting with 'absolutely no links to any terror network'.
He said undercover agents 'Gabriel', posing as a drugs dealer, and 'Rhees' posing as a weapons specialist, told him to 'go on a fishing trip' providing the tickets, accommodation and spending money.
Ali claimed: 'I am a stupid man. But I do not have a criminal mind. Except for the odd traffic offence, I have never committed one single criminal act.'
He claims his first link to the shadowy world of espionage began when he tried to import rice from Pakistan into the US. He then details a tangled web of CIA informants, stolen money, introductions to undercover FBI agents, promises of huge sums of cash, and pressure to engage drug dealers in Pakistan.
Ali said he contacted the two Pakistani men by Internet and met them in Peshawar. 'They were total strangers,' he said. 'Everything was put in our mouths. They [the agents] would say you get the drugs, we will give you Stingers and guns and cash. So these two guys [from Pakistan] would talk big.'
He said the agents pushed for the three men to rendezvous in Hong Kong, again paying for air fares and five-star accommodation. It was here they were arrested after being caught discussing the transaction on tape.
Ali said his home, boat, car and bank account had been confiscated by the US authorities.
'Now I have nothing, my family has nothing. But my message to the FBI is you know the size of my bank account, you know you have caught innocent men.'
Ali said they agreed to be waive extradition proceedings because they were 'uncertain of receiving a fair trial in Hong Kong'.
Ali added that he held grave fears for his life after a series of attacks and death threats from prisoners inside Lai Chi Kok.
