UPDATED:
WATERTOWN, Mass. (AP) — Two Pakistani men suspected of providing money to Times Square car bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad were arrested by the FBI in a string of Thursday morning raids across the Northeast, law enforcement officials said.
The searches were the product of evidence gathered in the investigation into the Times Square bomb attempt two weeks ago, but there was “no known immediate threat to the public or any active plot against the United States,” FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said.
The two Boston-area men had a “direct connection” to Pakistani-American suspect Faisal Shahzad, said a top Massachusetts law enforcement official. They are believed to have provided money to him, but investigators weren’t sure whether they were accomplices or simply moving funds, as is common among people from the Middle East and Central Asia who live in the U.S., said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
“These people might be completely innocent and not know what they were providing money for, but it’s clear there’s a connection,” the official said.
The arrests are administrative and not criminal, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Brian Hale said.
The men are from Pakistan, said another law-enforcement official familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to release details.
That official said one of the men had overstayed his visa. The government had already begun proceedings to remove the other man from the country; he was awaiting a ruling from an immigration court.
Police cordoned off a small house in Watertown, a suburb about 10 miles west of Boston, and a neighbor reported seeing an FBI raid there.
A Mobil gas station in Brookline, another Boston suburb, also was raided. The entrances and exits to the station were cordoned off by yellow tape, and FBI agents were going in and out of the building. Agents also searched a silver Honda in the parking lot, removing items from the vehicle and loading material into an SUV.
Elias Audy, 61, of Boston, is listed at the owner of the Mobil station. He was seen by reporters leaving the business afterward and had no comment.
Homes were searched in Centereach and Shirley, N.Y., both on Long Island, a law-enforcement official told the Associated Press Thursday. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Ashim Chakraborty, who owns the home in Centereach, said FBI and police came to his home Thursday morning seeking to question a man and a woman living in the basement apartment.
The woman, who did not identify herself, was still in the basement Thursday afternoon, telling reporters only, “Drop dead, I’m an American.”
In New Jersey, the FBI was searching a residence in Cherry Hill, N.J., and a print shop in Camden, N.J., said FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver in Philadelphia.
Two brothers, Muhammad Fiaez, and Iqbal Hinjhara live at the Cherry Hill condominium, Mr. Fiaez said. He said his brother owns the print shop.
Mr. Hale said a third person was arrested in Maine, though two other law-enforcement officials said that arrest was unrelated to the Times Square probe.
Mr. Shahzad, a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, has not yet appeared in court. Federal investigators say he has been cooperating and has told them he received weapons training in Pakistan.
Mr. Shahzad, 30, is accused of trying to detonate a bomb-laden SUV in Times Square on May 1. Police said the bomb had alarm clocks connected to a can filled with fireworks apparently intended to detonate gas cans and propane tanks.
The vehicle smoldered but didn’t explode. Federal agents, tracing Mr. Shahzad through the SUV’s previous owner, caught him two days later on a plane bound for the United Arab Emirates as it was departing New York’s Kennedy Airport.
There was no immediate comment from Pakistan on the raids Thursday.
Islamabad has said it was too early to say whether the Pakistani Taliban, which operates from the country’s lawless northwest tribal region, was behind the Times Square plot although the U.S. said it found a definite link. But Pakistan promised to cooperate with the investigation and has detained at least four people with purported connections to Mr. Shahzad.
Vinny Lacerra, 50, who lives across the street from the house raided in Watertown, said he was in his living room about 6 a.m. when he heard somebody say, “FBI! Put your hands up!” Mr. Lacerra said he looked out his windows and saw 15 to 20 FBI agents with their guns drawn surrounding the house.
About 15 minutes later, the agents went inside and came out with one man handcuffed and took him down the street, he said. He also said he saw an agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I was surprised to see this, because this is what you see on TV,” Mr. Lacerra said.
There was no indication that Mr. Audy, the gas station owner, was a target of the terror probe.
Mr. Audy was born in Lebanon, and came to the United States at 19 to study at the University of Houston in Texas and then at Northeastern University in Boston near his brother, according to the website of a used car dealership Mr. Audy also owned.
“He’s very, very philanthropically minded as a businessman, very involved in his community,” said Harry Robinson, executive director of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Robinson said Mr. Audy has a wife and family and has been a longtime U.S. resident. Mr. Robinson also said he was not only involved in the chamber, but the local Rotary club.
Mr. Shahzad had been living in Connecticut. William Reiner, FBI spokesman in Connecticut, said there were no search warrants served in the state Thursday as part of the investigation.
Associated Press writers Jay Lindsay in Brookline, Mass.; Russell Contreras, Glen Johnson and Denise Lavoie in Boston; Tom Hays in New York; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; John Christoffersen in New Haven, Conn.; Clarke Canfield in Portland, Maine; and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.
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