One of the two fake Homeland Security agents who fooled Secret Service agents into accepting lavish gifts and penthouse apartments boasted of his ties to Pakistan’s intelligence agency, prosecutors said during an arraignment hearing on Thursday.
Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36, were arrested on Wednesday night when cops swarmed the upscale Crossing Apartments in Washington, D.C.’s Navy Yard neighborhood. They were charged with false impersonation of a federal officer.
The FBI alleges the pair spent two years posing as Homeland Security agents working on gang-related investigations and other high-level jobs. They carried around official IDs and laptops, drove black SUVs with flashing lights, carried the same Glocks issued to federal officers, and became so friendly with some agents that the agents accepted invitations to come live in units at the Crossing Apartments for free.
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Taherzadeh and Ali occupied several apartments in the Crossings, a building popular with federal law enforcement agents, and styled themselves to residents as the “go-to guys” for anything, a Secret Service agent on first lady Jill Biden’s detail later told the FBI, according to the affidavit.
Arian Taherzadeh allegedly sent photos of himself to a Secret Service agent on first lady Jill Biden’s detail.
FBIAt least four Secret Service employees and one DHS employee were lavished with “rent-free apartments (with a total yearly rent of over $40,000 per apartment), iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat screen television, a case for storing an assault rifle, a generator, and law enforcement paraphernalia,” the FBI said.
Taherzadeh and Ali also appeared to have the Crossings heavily surveilled, and when cops raided their apartments on Wednesday they allegedly found a binder with a list of every resident in the building along with guns, gas masks, tactical gear, hard drivers, servers, a drone and training manuals from the Department of Homeland Security and Naval Criminal Investigative Service, ABC News reported.
But the affidavit unsealed in federal court on Wednesday night didn’t provide any information as to why Taherzadeh and Ali went to such lengths to ingratiate themselves with federal officers.
Prosecutors provided a possible hint during an initial hearing on Thursday afternoon, noting that Ali had previously mentioned to two witnesses that he had a connection to Pakistan’s main spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence. His passports also contained old Pakistani and Iranian visas, prosecutors said, according to Fox News.
Ties to Pakistan are not mentioned in any charging documents, and prosecutors noted that they hadn’t verified Ali’s claims.
A judge allowed the pair to obtain court-appointed lawyers ahead of detention hearings on Friday. Ali told the judge, “I don’t have any money,” Fox News reported.
The pair’s alleged ruse came undone when a USPS postal worker was assaulted while delivering mail to the Crossings on March 14. Residents told a USPS Inspector that Taherzadeh and Ali had likely witnessed the attack.
But when the inspector interviewed Taherzadeh and Ali, the men said they were part of a special police force within the Department of Homeland Security that didn’t actually exist. The inspector tipped off DHS’s inspector general, who passed the matter on to the FBI.
The four unidentified Secret Service agents wooed by Taherzadeh and Ali have been put on administrative leave pending an investigation, the Secret Service said Thursday.
