– court told
Russell Defreitas, an ex-airline employee, had told authorities when he was arrested for plotting to blow up New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport that he hoped to profit financially from the scheme, a police official told a New York court yesterday according to a Bloomburg report.
“He said the group wanted to make money off the plan,” Robert Addonizio, a New York City detective assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, testified before Justice Dora Irizarry.
Defreitas, a former Evergreen Airlines cargo worker, made the comment after he was arrested June 1, 2007, in Brooklyn, Addonizio said. Defreitas and co-defendant Abdul Kadir, a former PNC parliamentarian, are charged with hatching the plot in January 2006. They circulated their plan to an international network of Muslim extremists, prosecutors said in court papers.
On July 8, the jury heard a recording of the accused plotters discussing how much money they would need from backers of the plan. One said they should start the negotiations at US$1 million.
Defreitas said during his first interview at the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York headquarters that it was his idea to blow up fuel lines and tanks at the airport, Addonizio testified.
Investigators on the case, during an October 2006 meeting, concluded that the alleged plotters lacked the funds to carry out the plot, Addonizio testified on cross-examination by Len H. Kamdang, a lawyer for Defreitas.
According to the Bloomburg report the attacks were designed to destroy “the whole of Kennedy,” the largest airport in the New York City area, Defreitas said in a taped conversation, according to the Justice Department. The plot was foiled in the planning stages with the aid of an informant, Steven Francis, who had infiltrated the group accused of being behind the scheme, prosecutors said.
Addonizio testified that Francis was never instructed by investigators to push the plan along.
The plotters conducted surveillance of the airport, videotaped its buildings and sought expert advice, financing and explosives, prosecutors said.
Another Guyanese, Abdel Nur, pleaded guilty on June 29 to one count of providing support to terrorists. Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad, was granted a separate trial at a later date due to a medical condition.
Defreitas, a US citizen and native of Guyana, pleaded not guilty in 2007. His co-defendants pleaded not guilty in 2008. They’ve been in custody without bail.
Defreitas and Kadir face life in prison if convicted.
