Pakistani national deported who conspired to launder proceeds of terrorist financing

A Pakistani national and former Washington, D.C. business owner who served the last eight years in federal prison for conspiring to launder money and to concealing terrorist financing was turned over to authorities in Islamabad April 22 by officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Enforcement and Removal Operations.

Saifullah Anjum Ranjha, 53, pleaded guilty in 2008 to laundering more than $2.2 million, which he believed to be the proceeds of illegal activities conducted by al-Qaida, including drug trafficking and weapons smuggling, according to an ICE press release.

The investigation, which ultimately led to 42 arrests between 2008 and 2011, was led by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations Baltimore, the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation.

Ranjha, who owned homes in the District and Maryland and who had been living in the United States as a lawful permanent resident since 1997, used his money remitter business, Hamza Inc., to launder the funds internationally through an informal money transfer system called a “hawala.”

Ranjha’s removal was carried out by ICE as a “high profile removal,” a special designation given to foreign fugitives, national security threats, human rights violators and other special interest removals.

Ranjha departed the United States on April 20 from San Antonio International Airport in Texas under escort by deportation officers from ERO San Antonio. Upon his arrival in Pakistan, he was turned over to authorities there at the Benazir Bhutto International Airport in Islamabad, according to the ICE press release.

Source: India West