Tamil Tiger - linked gang
busted in ATM heist plot
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By BARBARA ROSS
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, October 16th 2007, 4:00 AM
Courtesy NYDAILYNEWS.COM
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A band of men linked to Tamil Tiger terrorists - led by a Sri Lankan
who used a fake passport to get security clearance at Newark Airport
- has been busted in a massive plot to loot city ATMs.
Manhattan prosecutors told the Daily News the eight men had ties to
the terror group and were part of a scheme to use stolen credit card
numbers to steal $250,000 in New York - and tens of millions from ATMs
worldwide.
Six were nabbed in January in a raid at the Chelsea Inn, a reputed
lair for the ultraviolent Sri Lankan separatist group.
The other two, including alleged ringleader Sivapalasri Velayuthampillai,
31, of Newark, were busted in July.
Until his arrest, Velayuthampillai worked three jobs at Newark Airport
as a security agent and baggage handler with complete security clearance.
Prosecutors said Velayuthampillai entered the U.S. with a fake passport
and dubious tale of persecution. He was given political asylum in December
2001 under circumstances still under investigation by District Attorney
Robert Morgenthau.
"The defendant is part of a large, highly organized ring of international
criminals who steal account and PIN numbers ... and then come to the
United States to steal money from our financial institutions,"
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Kim Han said in court papers.
The U.S. and other Western governments consider the Tamil Tigers a
terror organization. Velayuthampillai and the other alleged cell members
came from families who emigrated from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Somalia.
Prosecutors contend the men became part of a massive global identity
theft scam last year when credit card numbers and PINs were stolen from
thousands of customers at 200 gas stations in the United Kingdom.
In recent bail arguments, Han said Velayuthampillai booked hotels for
his "criminal cohorts," rented cars, drove them to various
banks, moved them to different hotels every few days and hooked them
up with a man who sent the money abroad.
Han said Velayuthampillai had 30 forged cards on him when he was arrested
in midtown in July and more than 400 bogus cards in his rented car,
all bearing account numbers stolen from two U.K. gas stations.
The operation was accidentally uncovered in the Chelsea Inn on 11th
Ave. when NYPD narcotics detectives raided the hotel and one investigator
shouted to everyone in the lobby, "Freeze! I will shoot you if
you move!"
That's when one rattled suspect, Ibrahim Abdifatah, 27, dropped 67
blank credit cards on the floor, police said.
"These are playing cards. We play with them," Abdifatah said.Cops
found more than 250 blank credit cards, a coding machine, lists of financial
account information and a laptop in an upstairs room that four of the
defendants shared.
Abdifatah, who has pleaded guilty to more than 500 counts of identity
theft and fraud, told cops he was recruited in England and promised
$5,000 to use the bogus cards. Investigators said the Tamil Tigers target
the U.S. because American credit cards don't have the extra microchip
security device that has helped curtail credit card frauds in Britain.
Another Sri Lankan, Krishantha Rasanayagan, 19, quickly fingered a
cohort, Usman Mahmood, as the man who had organized the effort in London.
"He showed us how to encode the cards. We all do the encoding,
and we each make withdrawals. Our goal was to reach $250,000,"
Rasanayagan said.
All of the defendants, except Velayuthampillai, are being held without
bail. Bail was set for him at $2 million.
Lawyers for the defendants deny their clients have terror ties. "I
don't think he was politically motivated," Abdifatah's lawyer Adam
Freedman said.
"This is like tying a sidewalk crack dealer ... to the Medellin
drug cartel [in Colombia]," said Mahmood's lawyer Michael Dailey.
British and Sri Lankan authorities say the proceeds from this kind
of international ATM fraud are routed back to the Tamil Tigers, Han
wrote.
This summer, Jane's Intelligence Review said the Tamil Tigers raise
up to $300 million a year through international credit card fraud, extortion
and donations.
Tamil Tigers
The Tamil Tigers are one of the world's most ruthless and violent nationalist
organizations. Thirty-two countries, including the U.S., have branded
the Tigers a terrorist group.
Founded three decades ago in Sri Lanka, the Tigers have indiscriminately
attacked civilians in order to create a separate Tamil state in parts
of Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon.
Known formally as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the group pioneered
the use of suicide bombers, called the Black Tigers. Female suicide
bombers were employed in the assassination of former Indian President
Rajiv Gandhi and in an attempt on the life of Sri Lankan President Chandrika
Kumaranatunga.
Experts have linked them to other terrorist organizations and note
the similarity between the Tigers' attack on Sri Lanka Navy ships and
the Al Qaeda attack on the U.S. destroyer Cole that killed 17 American
sailors.
Their sources of worldwide funding, in addition to credit card fraud,
include sea piracy, human smuggling and drug trafficking, the experts
say.
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