A Cedar Rapids, Iowa family was accused of trying to hide guns and ammunition in containers full of donated goods bound for the Middle East.
Conspiracy charges were filed Tuesday, May 13, 2015, against 50-year-old Ali Afif Al Herz, his 29-year-old brother Bassem Afif Herz, Bassem’s 24-year-old wife Sarah Majid Zeaiter, and Ali’s 22-year-old son Adam Ben Ali Al Herz.
Two shipments, sent March 26 and May 8, 2015 from Cedar Rapids, containing ammunition and more than 150 weapons, were intercepted by federal authorities before the goods reached their destination in Lebanon.
It all started when an eastern Iowa firearms store owner reported large purchases of weapons and ammunition in February 2015, the federal complaint said. That same store owner reported seeing the same people purchase about 20 firearms at a recent gun show in eastern Iowa. Investigators discovered the same buyers made other legal purchases at other gun dealers as well.
At least 113 firearms were purchased from licensed dealers in the past 18 months. Authorities also discovered more than $160,000 transferred by wire in connection with the guns and ammunition.
The first container was intercepted by Homeland Security in Norfolk, Virginia, two days after it left Cedar Rapids. It reportedly contained clothes, shoes, household supplies and a piano, along with more than four dozen firearms, parts and thousands of rounds of ammunition hidden in a skid loader. Some of the firearms were in bags like those used by the Pizza Daddy store in Cedar Rapids, court documents said. The dock receipt for the container reportedly listed the exporter as Elissar, which operates under the Pizza Daddy name.
Surveillance was started when investigators found out arrangements were underway to ship another container. Ali Herz had reportedly been seen loading the skid loader into that container on the loading dock at Midamar Corporation in Cedar Rapids. The container was intercepted and searched May 8; it allegedly contained about 100 firearms, parts, and thousands of rounds of ammunition inside boxes of clothing and a skid loader.
Midamar is a food company which reportedly collected donated food and clothing to be sent to Syrian refugees and people trapped in Lebanon. The company was not directly charged or implicated, and an attorney representing Midamar said their employees had no knowledge of what was in the container.
A total of 152 firearms were seized from the two containers. About four dozen weapons bought by the defendants had not yet been found.
A container that held three Bobcat skid loaders was also sent by Herz to Beirut in August 2014; it apparently was not intercepted.
All four defendants appeared in federal court Tuesday, May 12, 2015. They were ordered to remain in jail pending trial. Three of them were scheduled for detention hearings set for May 15.
If convicted, each faces a maximum of 5 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and 3 years of supervised release.
Read it here: Herz Criminal Complaint