US prosecutors have charged two men for allegedly posing as phony agents since February 2020 to ingratiate themselves with “members of federal law enforcement and the defense community."
Furthermore, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36, even compromised a member of First Lady Jill Biden's Secret Service detail, whom they purportedly showered with lavish gifts, reported the Daily Beast.
The fake agents were taken into custody after an FBI raid on 6 April on a Crossing Apartment building in southeast Washington DC, where Taherzadeh and Ali resided along with many staffers employed by the FBI, Secret Service, Department of Defense and the Navy.
'Phony' Federal Agents
Details of the plot masterminded by the detained men were first revealed when the US Postal Inspection Service began probing an alleged assault on a USPS letter carrier that happened at the DC luxury apartment building in question.
According to prosecutors cited in the report, the men presented themselves as DHS investigation special agents who may have witnessed the assault.
When an investigator spoke to the two men, they claimed they were “special police” officers linked to covert undercover gang-related investigations. While there is no clarification regarding what tipped the investigator off, he is described as passing the information over to the DHS's Inspector General. It was this that prompted an FBI investigation.
The FBI indictment says that the men, whose nationalities have not been revealed, posed as members of a non-existent Department of Homeland Security unit they called the US Special Police Investigation Unit, ostensibly investigating gang violence and the January 6 Capitol riots.
They are said to have wielded handguns and assault rifles used by US law enforcement agencies, carried official-looking DHS ID cards and driven around in an official-looking SUV equipped with flashing lights.
The man also reportedly set up fake websites, deceiving an unnamed “applicant” to join their Homeland Security task force. The recruitment process is believed to have involved shooting the applicant with an airsoft rifle to “evaluate their pain tolerance,” as well as the candidate researching an unnamed person employed as a contractor for the Department of Defense and the intelligence community.
To get away with their ruse, the men reportedly ingratiated themselves with Secret Service staff, supplying agents with rent-free luxury apartments, including a penthouse worth an annual $40,000, as well as "iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat screen television, a case for storing an assault rifle, a generator, and law enforcement paraphernalia," wrote FBI Special Agent David Elias in an affidavit.
Arian Taherzadeh, claim prosecutors, offered Secret service agents use a black GMC SUV that he identified as an “official government vehicle.” In another instance, Taherzadeh purportedly offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a Secret Service agent assigned to protect Jill Biden.
The bodyguard in question, along with three other members of the agency, have been placed on leave pending the investigation. It is unclear what the phony agents hoped to gain from their stunt, or whether the pair ever managed to directly engage with the First Lady.
The two detained individuals are scheduled to appear in the US District Court in DC on Thursday, charged with impersonating federal law enforcement.