FEDS DETAIN BEAVERCREEK MAN

Judge cites effort to bring 25 Yemenis into U.S.

BEAVERCREEK - Ali Kareem Aladimi, his wife and six children livein a $350,000 home on a cul-de-sac in a subdivision called TranquilHaven.

Neighbors said Tuesday it's been anything but tranquil there sinceAladimi's arrival there in early May 1999.

Semitrailers came to Aladimi's home in the middle of the night,awakening neighbors and arousing their suspicions. Within weeks ofAladimi's arrival, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agentsraided the house and seized $784,000 in cash that Aladimi had stashedin resealed cartons of Lady Clairol hair coloring.

"He was suspicious from the time he moved in," said a neighbor,who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Aladimi, a 41-year-old naturalized American citizen born in Yemen,was ordered detained without bond Monday by a federal magistrate inCincinnati after prosecutors said a search warrant produced recordsshowing he tried to bring 25 Yemeni citizens to the United Statesimproperly.

Yemen is a Middle Eastern nation whose government is allied withthe United States in the war on terrorism. It also is the ancestralhome of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden. Terrorists attacked theUSS Cole there in 2000, and last week three American missionarieswere shot to death there.

Magistrate Judge Timothy Hogan of U.S. District Court inCincinnati said Tuesday he ordered Aladimi held without bond becauseprosecutors said he used an alias and because of the large amount ofcash seized in his Beavercreek home in 1999.

He said Aladimi's attempts to bring the 25 Yemenis to the UnitedStates is "a huge red flag in today's environment."

But Aladimi's attorney, Janet Kravitz of Columbus, said he hadbeen working with federal immigration officials to bring the men tothe states as skilled workers to make Qamareya, an ancient form ofgypsum stained glass used in Yemen.

On an Internet site, Aladimi said he secured a patent to a glass-making process in March 2000. He said he had high hopes of marketingthe decorative windows in the United States.

"The project was short-lived and the dream remained unrealized,however, because of the tragic events of 9-11-01, at the very samemoment when I was at the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa, Yemen, facilitatingthe visa process for 25 skilled artisans who were authorized by theINS (U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service)," Aladimi wrote.The purpose of the Web site is to help him to sell the patent.

Kravitz said she believes "the government was trying to inflamethe court" by bringing up the 25 Yemenis at Aladimi's bond hearingbefore Hogan on Monday. She said he has not been charged withanything in regard to the men, and they have nothing to do with thecharges that brought him to Hogan's court.

Aladimi stashed money in hair coloring cartons because he, likemany Muslims, doesn't trust banks, she said.

Aladimi, who has a wholesaling business in Butler County's WestChester Twp., is facing federal charges in Cincinnati, accused oftransporting stolen merchandise in interstate commerce.

Acting on a tip from federal officials, West Chester policeexecuted a search warrant at Aladimi's Twins Wholesale Inc., 4610Interstate Drive, around 8 p.m. Dec. 30.

They found about 45 pallets of baby food believed to have beenstolen from Mississippi, Sgt. Erik Niehaus said. They also chargedAladimi with drug abuse after allegedly finding khat, a narcoticillegal in the United States, but commonly chewed by people in Africaand the Middle East.

The state charges were dismissed Jan. 2 because federal chargestook precedence, police said.

Prior to his detention, Aladimi was free on $400,000 bond pendingcharges in federal court in Fresno, Calif., that he conspired todistribute the over-the-counter drug pseudoephedrine for use inillicit methamphetamine labs. No trial date has been set in thatcase.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pamela M. Stanek said an agreement wasreached with Aladimi's attorneys that the assets seized in the 1999Beavercreek raid would be forfeited if he violated the conditions ofhis $400,000 bond in Fresno by failing to appear at any requiredappearance there.

Kravitz said Aladimi has lived in the United States for 20 yearsand is a licensed distributor of pseudoephedrine, an ingredient inAlka-Seltzer, Aleve, Sudafed, Tylenol, Motrin and many other over-the-counter products.

However, in 1999, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy refused to registeror license Twins Wholesale to distribute the drug, after finding thatthe business shipped hundreds of cases of pseudoephedrine "for noapparent legitimate medical purpose."

Staff writers Wes Hills and Rob Modic of the Dayton Daily News and Perry Schaible of the Pulse-Journal contributed to this report.

Several of Aladimi's neighbors Tuesday said they wish he'd moveout. One said he called the FBI about Aladimi after the Sept. 11,2001, terrorist attacks.

"I just want to see the house for sale," one of the neighborssaid.