FBI Arrests Two Men Posing as DHS Agents Who Offered Gifts to Secret Service Agents

Edited by: TJVNews.com

The U.S. Secret Service said on Thursday it has placed four agents on administrative leave for allegedly accepting gifts including rent-free apartments from two men now facing criminal charges for posing as Department of Homeland Security special agents, according to a Reuters report.

One of the secret service agents worked on First Lady Jill Biden’s security detail, as was reported by the AP.

The Secret Service’s announcement came a day after the U.S. Justice Department said it had arrested the two suspects, Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36, in Washington.

They were taken into custody as more than a dozen FBI agents charged into a luxury apartment building in southeast Washington on Wednesday evening, according to an Al-Jazeera report.

In a statement, a spokesman for the agency said that it was working with investigators and that the employees involved in the case had been restricted “from accessing Secret Service facilities, equipment, and systems,” according to a New York Times report.

Kang Lee, the spokesman said: “The Secret Service adheres to the highest levels of professional standards and conduct and will remain in active coordination with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security.”

Prosecutors allege that Taherzadeh and Ali had falsely claimed to work for the Department of Homeland Security and work on a special task force investigating violence connected to the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to an AP report. They allege the two posed as law enforcement officers to integrate with actual federal agents for a possible reconnaissance operation, although authorities did not detail what, if anything, the men were planning to accomplish by posing as officers of by providing ethe gifts.

According to the criminal complaint, Taherzadeh and Ali had posed as special agents since at least February 2020. The AP reported that Taherzadeh is accused of providing Secret Service officers and at least one Homeland Security employee 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, a case for storing an assault rifle and other law enforcement paraphernalia, according to court documents.

The FBI also said that Taherzadeh offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for an agent assigned to protect First Lady Jill Biden and told other government officials they could have access to a black GMC SUV that he identified as an “official government vehicle,” prosecutors say.

The nefarious plot unraveled when the U.S. Postal Inspection Service began investigating an assault involving 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, according to an AP report.

The postal inspector discovered that others who lived in the same apartment complex believed that Taherzadeh and Ali had set up surveillance in the building, officials said. Reuters reported that residents said they believed the two were capable of accessing their private cellphones and had access to their personal information, officials added.

Taherzadeh and Ali were scheduled for an initial appearance in federal court in Washington on Thursday. It was not immediately clear if they had retained legal counsel.

The Department of Justice said the two men tried to recruit at least one person to join what they claimed was an official DHS “task force.”

“Taherzadeh and Ali required that the ‘applicant’ be shot with an Airsoft rifle to evaluate their pain tolerance and reaction,” an FBI agent wrote in a sworn statement, according to the Reuters report. “Subsequent to being shot, the applicant was informed that their hiring was in process. The applicant was also assigned to conduct research on an individual that provided support to the Department of Defense and intelligence community.”

“All personnel involved in this matter are on administrative leave and are restricted from accessing Secret Service facilities, equipment and systems,” the agency said.

“Taherzadeh and Ali have attempted to use their false and fraudulent affiliation with D.H.S. to ingratiate themselves with members of federal law enforcement and the defense community,” David Elias, an F.B.I. special agent, wrote in the affidavit, according to the New York Times report.

Taherzadeh often carried a Glock 19, Elias wrote.

This was not the first time that the conduct of members of the Secret Service had drawn intense scrutiny to the agency, according to the report. In 2012, several agents resigned or faced their dismissal after information emerged that they had engaged in misconduct while protecting former President Barack Obama during an overseas trip to Colombia, including encounters with prostitutes.