Federal prosecutors on Wednesday charged two (Middle Eastern?) men with posing as DHS agents, giving expensive gifts to Secret Service Agents.
A dozen FBI agents busted down the door of a luxury apartment in DC and arrested Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36 on Wednesday night.
Taherzadeh and Ali gave free apartments, iPhones, surveillance systems, drones and other tools to the Secret Service Agents.
Four Secret Service officers – including one assigned to protect the First Lady, were placed on leave as the feds investigate.
AP reported:
Prosecutors allege Taherzadeh and Ali had falsely claimed to work for the Department of Homeland Security and work on a special task force investigating gang and violence connected to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. They allege the two posed as law enforcement officers to integrate with actual federal agents.
Taherzadeh is accused of providing Secret Service officers and agents with rent-free apartments — including a penthouse worth over $40,000 a year — along with iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, flat screen television, a generator, gun case and other policing tools, according to court documents.
He also offered to let them use a black GMC SUV that he identified as an “official government vehicle,” prosecutors say. In one instance, Taherzadeh offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a Secret Service agent who is assigned to protect the first lady.
The plot unraveled when the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began investigating an assault on a mail carrier at the apartment building and the men identified themselves as being part of a phony Homeland Security unit they called the U.S. Special Police Investigation Unit.
Prosecutors say the men had also set up surveillance in the building and had been telling residents there that they could access any of their cellphones at any time. The residents also told investigators they believed the men had access to their personal information.