By Ivan Pereira and Connor Adams Sheets
The public spotlight returned to Flushing last week after two men were arrested in connection with the terrorist plot allegedly concocted by suspected Al Qaeda operative Najibullah Zazi, a former Queens resident.
The two arrests last Thursday brought the number of terror suspects taken into custody in Flushing to four since September as the federal government pursues its investigation into an alleged conspiracy to attack New York City.
Adis “Mohammed” Medunjanin, 25, a recent Queens College graduate, was arrested last Thursday and charged with receiving military training from Al Qaeda in Pakistan. Hours later his fellow Queens College classmate, Zarein Ahmedzay, 24, a taxi driver, was picked up by the FBI and held on charges of lying to investigators.
The FBI searched Medunjanin’s Mitchell-Linden apartment last Thursday afternoon, which prompted the Bosnian native to flee in a car while the search took place, investigators said. He then got into an accident on the Whitestone Expressway, according to authorities.
“His residence was searched. At that point there was no intent to arrest somebody,” FBI spokesman James Margolin said. “Some time subsequent to [the crash] — midnight — he was placed in federal custody. Shortly after that [Ahmedzay] was arrested.”
A neighbor said he was shocked by Medunjanin’s arrest .
“He was a good guy, friendly. He was working, he just graduated from school, from college,” said the neighbor, who did not want to be identified but said he lived on the same floor of the Flushing co-op building on 137th Street as the Medunjanin family. “The whole family was friendly.”
In September, Zazi, an Afghan national, was arrested in Denver on charges that he trained in Pakistan with Al Qaeda and was preparing to attack New York City locations. Zazi, 24, an airport shuttle bus driver, had moved from Flushing to Denver last year after returning from Pakistan and purchased bomb-making supplies, according to authorities. He has been charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction.
Flushing imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, an NYPD informant, was charged with lying to authorities in September after he reportedly tipped off Zazi to an ongoing FBI investigation into the suspected plot when Zazi returned to Queens, allegedly to commit the bombing on the eve of the Sept. 11 anniversary, according to the U.S. attorney.
The imam was shown photos of Zazi, Medunjanin and Ahmedzay, The New York Times reported, after it was discovered that the three men, who had all lived in the same Flushing neighborhood, traveled to Pakistan together. Law enforcement officials have kept the Mitchell-Linden co-op under continuous surveillance since Zazi’s arrest, according to neighbors and the complex’s administrator.
Medunjanin, who pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn federal court Friday, was scheduled to attend a bail hearing this week on one count each of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and receiving military-type training from a foreign terrorist organization, according to Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn.
Medunjanin received military-type training from Al Qaeda between August and October 2008 in Pakistan, according to court documents, and conspired “to commit one or more acts outside the United States that would constitute the offenses of murder and maiming.”
Ahmedzay, who entered a non-guilty plea Saturday, was scheduled for a bail hearing next week on the charge of making material false statements, according to the criminal complaint. The documents accuse him of lying to the FBI about a trip to Pakistan by “John Doe” during which “Doe” received military-type training, which he denied having any knowledge of.
It was thought that the “John Doe” referred to Zazi.
Both men attended Queens College, where Medunjanin earned a bachelor’s degree in economics in September 2009 and Ahmedzay took classes between the fall of 2004 and spring of 2009 but did not graduate, according to a spokeswoman at the school. Both men and Zazi were students at Flushing High School, The Times reported.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
