A trio of Lebanese men caught in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico with Belizean passports has raised concerns that there may have been a terrorist cell operating in Belize. The American citizen, of Arab origin, Rafic Mohammad Labboun Allaboun, a suspected member of the terrorist network Hezbollah, was arrested Saturday, September 8, 2012, in Merida through an operation conducted by the National Migration Institute (INM) and the State Police.
According to the The Yucatan Times, Labboun Allaboun was arrested in a house located in the street 41-B, between 56 and 58 of the colony Francisco de Montejo in the west part of the city. At the moment of the arrest, the suspect identified himself as Wilhelm Dick with a fake Belizean passport.
Eyewitnesses recalled that close to 9p.m. vehicles from the INM and the SSP parked front of the premises, several officers heavily armed got out, and in a very quick and effective operation arrested three men. The suspects were taken, apparently, to a security complex located on the loop highway escorted by a high security convoy.
In the same operation, George Abdalah Elders and Justin Yasser Safa were also arrested; both Belizeans citizens with valid migratory forms (FM1) issued by the INM.
Official sources stated that intelligence agencies from the United States were tracking down this group, allegedly part of the terrorist network of Hezbollah, which operates in Mexico and Central America.
After the arrest, information leaked that somehow Labboun Allaboun is linked to the 911 attack of the Twin Towers in New York; the data has not yet been fully confirmed.
Allegedly the group arrested was participating in financing activities in an attempt to bail out incarcerated Hezbollah members jailed in the United States.
However, Mohammed Labboun was deported to the U.S. a few hours after his arrest, Sunday very early in the morning. On Monday, September 10, 2012, he appeared before a judge in Texas for violating his parole and was returned to California for imprisonment.
Belize City media reported that according to the Ministry of National Security Wilhelm Dick has a Belizean birth certificate which says he was born in Shipyard in 1976 – and he has a Belizean driver’s license issued in Belmopan. The Ministry is working to see if it is the case of identity theft or an invented identity.
