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Many identities { October 31 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=antigua31m0&date=20021031&query=Caribbean+sniperhttp://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=antigua31m0&date=20021031&query=Caribbean+sniper
Local News: Thursday, October 31, 2002
John Allen Muhammad: A man of many identities
By Cheryl Phillips and Christine Willmsen
Seattle Times staff reporters
If authorities and his own friends are correct, suspected sniper John Allen Muhammad:
* Marketed counterfeit passports and stolen credit cards in Tacoma for $3,000 a pop.
* Smuggled Antiguans and other immigrants into the U.S., including the mother of Lee Boyd Malvo, the 17-year-old accused of being Muhammad's accomplice in the sniper case.
* Possessed 22 different identities (he had several fake IDs in his wallet when arrested in Maryland).
* Provided "army training" to some of those to whom he supplied new identities.
"There is very good evidence showing that he was a very good forger of U.S. documents," said John Fuller, a member of the Antiguan task force investigating Muhammad's activities on the Caribbean island. "I think he used good American technology, Adobe Photoshop."
Interviews with Antiguan officials and with friends of Muhammad's here and in the Caribbean paint a picture of an intense, almost reckless operator, a man who bounced from having rolls of cash and taking international flights to sleeping at homeless shelters.
His activities came to the attention of law-enforcement officials in the United States and in Antigua, but Muhammad managed to continue on his way. In April 2001, for instance, he was caught in Miami with fake identification while accompanying two Jamaican women without proper papers. Authorities let him go and an investigation was dropped.
His alleged human smuggling and fake-ID business could explain some of the more puzzling aspects of his life: how a man without a job had money for travel and why Una James and her son Malvo came into his orbit.
Selling identities
Craig Hack, 41, a Tacoma mechanic, agreed this week to discuss his dealings with Muhammad. He first talked to Muhammad seven months ago about buying a passport, visa, international driver's license and credit cards for $3,000, Hack said.
Hack hoped to use the documents from Muhammad to get a clean slate and enable him to drive freely throughout the United States. Hack had served almost 13 months in jail over the past two years for being a habitual offender. The offenses: driving violations, including driving with his license suspended.
"John said that if the cops stop you, they can't mess with you," Hack said. "It will even wipe out child support (records)."
Muhammad pulled out a Bank of Argentina credit card and an out-of-state driver's license from his pocket and showed it to him, Hack said. "He said 'If you want to burn credit with it you can. You can rent merchandise with it and dump it.' "
They agreed to a $1,500 down payment and then, three to four weeks later, when the documents arrived, a final $1,500 payment, Hack said.
Hack started to save money and planned on giving Muhammad his birth certificate and passport photos.
"He guaranteed it would work 100 percent," Hack said. "He was a middleman, a broker."
Hack continued to save money for the false documents until last Thursday — when Muhammad was arrested for the sniper shootings around Washington, D.C.
Family in Antigua
In Antigua, Muhammad shared a house in 2000 with Kithlyn Ned, a mechanic. Ned said Muhammad did not try to conceal his activities. Ned said he once saw Muhammad with five Antiguan passports in his hand.
"It's not one passport, it's not two passports, it's a lot of passports," Ned said in an Antiguan radio interview reviewed by The Times.
Ned said Muhammad used as many as 22 different identities. He helped James, Malvo's mother, enter the U.S., Ned said.
Muhammad and his three children from his second marriage shared a house with Ned. Muhammad's former wife, Mildred, has said he abducted them. Malvo also stayed with them part of the time, Ned said.
Malvo and Muhammad slept on the floor in two sleeping bags. The three younger children shared a single bed in a small room. At one point, Muhammad left his children and wasn't seen for three weeks, Ned said. Another woman living at the house had to care for them.
Ned said that Muhammad would arrange for people to fly to Antigua from the United States and other countries. Other people would use the return legs on those tickets to enter the U.S. with fake documents, Ned said.
Meanwhile, the people who had flown in would participate in some type of training with Muhammad, a Gulf War veteran, and would fly out later, when more people flew in on new tickets.
Other times, Ned said, Muhammad funded the fake documentation of others so they could attend training.
Asked by The Seattle Times in a telephone interview what type of training Muhammad provided, Ned said, "something like army training." But he said he never witnessed Muhammad do any training.
Fuller, the Antiguan investigator, said the task force has not linked Muhammad to any military training on the small island.
In addition, the task force has discovered only one instance of an Antiguan passport that was forged -- the one that Muhammad used for himself and obtained in July 2000, Fuller said.
Ned said he complained twice to Antiguan officials about the fake-passport operation but was told there was no problem.
His business ventures included more than just the training and fake documents. He traded in batteries, CDs, and medical and army supplies, Ned said.
Muhammad also helped Malvo's mother obtain documents to go to the U.S., Ned said. Malvo stayed with Muhammad after he'd gotten into some trouble elsewhere, Ned said in the radio interview.
In another case, Ned said, Muhammad helped a girl return from Puerto Rico, where she was caught with fake papers.
On Tuesday, two FBI agents arrived in Antigua to investigate Muhammad's activities and are working with local authorities, Fuller said. FBI agent John Groesher, reached by telephone in Antigua yesterday, said he was sorry that he couldn't comment on the case. "But I give you points for tracking me down."
Seattle Times staff reporters Susan Kelleher, David Heath and Steve Miletich contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company
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