White Sail
Junior News Editor
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/10/1818780/girlfriend-of-man-accused-in-west.html
Girlfriend of man accused in West Bank weapons plot calls arrest a `huge mistake'
The girlfriend of a Cuban migrant charged with plotting to buy stolen weapons intended for the West Bank said his arrest was a `huge mistake.'
BY JAY WEAVER
Posted on Friday, 09.10.10
When federal agents came knocking Monday night, Yanny Aguila Urbay and his girlfriend were about to start watching the new Roman Polanski
movie The Ghost Writer at their Miami Springs home.
``He was in shock when he was arrested, and kept saying to the FBI, `What's happening, what's happening?' '' Fiorella Ayvar recalled Friday. ``I screamed, `Don't shoot! Don't shoot!' as I grabbed our 1-year-old daughter.''
Ayvar said she still doesn't understand what has happened to her boyfriend. Aguila, 24, was charged with conspiring with a Palestinian man in Miami to buy stolen high-powered firearms, explosives and remote-control detonators. The arms were allegedly intended for the West Bank.
The Palestinian, Abdalaziz Aziz Hamayel, 23, who had attended Hialeah Senior High, was arrested at Miami International Airport on Aug. 30 after flying in from Jordan.
Ayvar, who met Aguila in her Miami Springs neighborhood, had his baby daughter and then started living with him in June, said she had never heard of the Palestinian.
``This is a huge mistake,'' Ayvar, 24, said in an interview. ``The truth has to come out. He doesn't have anything to do with this.''
More details of the FBI's counterterrorism investigation into the alleged weapons plot could surface Monday, when Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gilbert seeks pretrial detention for both defendants.
The two men -- who were recorded by undercover police officers saying they wanted to buy the cache of stolen weapons to ship to the Palestinian Authority -- are being held at the federal detention center in downtown Miami.
Aguila arrived by boat from Cuba, where his parents and two sisters still live, seven years ago. He didn't go to school. Instead, he started working a variety of odd jobs in the floral, glass, carpeting and roofing trades.
Aguila occasionally stayed at Guillermo Quintana's apartment in Little Havana. ``He came [to the United States] to work,'' said Quintana, 62, who met Aguila through a mutual friend who hailed from Aguila's hometown.
Last year, Aguila began living with his cousin, Lazaro Urbay, and the cousin's girlfriend, Yasmina Kauffman, in Hialeah. Kauffman said Aguila worked with her brother laying carpet.
It was during that time -- April to June 2009 -- that the FBI conducted its undercover investigation of Aguila and Hamayel.
`IT'S CRAZY'
Kauffman said she had never heard of the Palestinian, who has lived in Hialeah and Miami for more than a decade.
Asked if she detected anything suspicious about Aguila when he lived with her, she said: ``Absolutely not.''
``I can't believe it,'' she said of Aguila's arrest. ``It's crazy.''
According to two FBI complaints, it was Aguila who first reached out to a confidential government source in April 2009 on Hamayel's behalf to buy weapons and explosives. Hamayel then contacted the source and requested 300 M-16 rifles, 9mm handguns, Uzi submachine guns, silencers and grenades, indicating that he would be able to pay in advance.
In June 2009, an undercover police officer posing as a supplier showed Hamayel weapons and two types of remote detonators -- cellphone and hand-held radio. But he never closed the deal.
Hamayel soon contacted a government informant seeking help in obtaining a fraudulent driver's license, saying he was going on a trip to Chicago for two weeks. Instead, Hamayel left for the West Bank, according to the complaints.
He was arrested more than a year later upon his return to Miami in late August. It's not clear whether federal agents lost track of Hamayel, or deliberately chose to let him leave the U.S. to monitor his movements.
KNOWN ON STREETS
Hamayel dropped out of Hialeah High after the 10th grade. He worked for his father, Nathem Hamayel, who came to Miami in 1997. The father had a number of businesses, including linen and carpet operations in Hialeah, though it's unclear if that's how Hamayel came to know Aguila.
The father also owned the Town Market grocery at 132 NE Second Ave. in downtown Miami, selling it in March 2009.
The young Palestinian also helped his father sell bed sheets and linens at flea markets in Broward and Hialeah. And, he was known for selling watches and other merchandise on the streets of Hialeah, said people who knew him.
Father and son both traveled back to the West Bank and returned.
Girlfriend of man accused in West Bank weapons plot calls arrest a `huge mistake'
The girlfriend of a Cuban migrant charged with plotting to buy stolen weapons intended for the West Bank said his arrest was a `huge mistake.'
BY JAY WEAVER
Posted on Friday, 09.10.10
When federal agents came knocking Monday night, Yanny Aguila Urbay and his girlfriend were about to start watching the new Roman Polanski
movie The Ghost Writer at their Miami Springs home.``He was in shock when he was arrested, and kept saying to the FBI, `What's happening, what's happening?' '' Fiorella Ayvar recalled Friday. ``I screamed, `Don't shoot! Don't shoot!' as I grabbed our 1-year-old daughter.''
Ayvar said she still doesn't understand what has happened to her boyfriend. Aguila, 24, was charged with conspiring with a Palestinian man in Miami to buy stolen high-powered firearms, explosives and remote-control detonators. The arms were allegedly intended for the West Bank.
The Palestinian, Abdalaziz Aziz Hamayel, 23, who had attended Hialeah Senior High, was arrested at Miami International Airport on Aug. 30 after flying in from Jordan.
Ayvar, who met Aguila in her Miami Springs neighborhood, had his baby daughter and then started living with him in June, said she had never heard of the Palestinian.
``This is a huge mistake,'' Ayvar, 24, said in an interview. ``The truth has to come out. He doesn't have anything to do with this.''
More details of the FBI's counterterrorism investigation into the alleged weapons plot could surface Monday, when Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Gilbert seeks pretrial detention for both defendants.
The two men -- who were recorded by undercover police officers saying they wanted to buy the cache of stolen weapons to ship to the Palestinian Authority -- are being held at the federal detention center in downtown Miami.
Aguila arrived by boat from Cuba, where his parents and two sisters still live, seven years ago. He didn't go to school. Instead, he started working a variety of odd jobs in the floral, glass, carpeting and roofing trades.
Aguila occasionally stayed at Guillermo Quintana's apartment in Little Havana. ``He came [to the United States] to work,'' said Quintana, 62, who met Aguila through a mutual friend who hailed from Aguila's hometown.
Last year, Aguila began living with his cousin, Lazaro Urbay, and the cousin's girlfriend, Yasmina Kauffman, in Hialeah. Kauffman said Aguila worked with her brother laying carpet.
It was during that time -- April to June 2009 -- that the FBI conducted its undercover investigation of Aguila and Hamayel.
`IT'S CRAZY'
Kauffman said she had never heard of the Palestinian, who has lived in Hialeah and Miami for more than a decade.
Asked if she detected anything suspicious about Aguila when he lived with her, she said: ``Absolutely not.''
``I can't believe it,'' she said of Aguila's arrest. ``It's crazy.''
According to two FBI complaints, it was Aguila who first reached out to a confidential government source in April 2009 on Hamayel's behalf to buy weapons and explosives. Hamayel then contacted the source and requested 300 M-16 rifles, 9mm handguns, Uzi submachine guns, silencers and grenades, indicating that he would be able to pay in advance.
In June 2009, an undercover police officer posing as a supplier showed Hamayel weapons and two types of remote detonators -- cellphone and hand-held radio. But he never closed the deal.
Hamayel soon contacted a government informant seeking help in obtaining a fraudulent driver's license, saying he was going on a trip to Chicago for two weeks. Instead, Hamayel left for the West Bank, according to the complaints.
He was arrested more than a year later upon his return to Miami in late August. It's not clear whether federal agents lost track of Hamayel, or deliberately chose to let him leave the U.S. to monitor his movements.
KNOWN ON STREETS
Hamayel dropped out of Hialeah High after the 10th grade. He worked for his father, Nathem Hamayel, who came to Miami in 1997. The father had a number of businesses, including linen and carpet operations in Hialeah, though it's unclear if that's how Hamayel came to know Aguila.
The father also owned the Town Market grocery at 132 NE Second Ave. in downtown Miami, selling it in March 2009.
The young Palestinian also helped his father sell bed sheets and linens at flea markets in Broward and Hialeah. And, he was known for selling watches and other merchandise on the streets of Hialeah, said people who knew him.
Father and son both traveled back to the West Bank and returned.