Federal Agents Raid Restaurant Chain Restaurant Owners Accused Of Harboring Illegal Immigrants

POSTED: 5:33 p.m. EST December 10, 2002 UPDATED: 5:55 p.m. EST December 10, 2002

BALTIMORE -- Federal agents searched the New York Fried Chicken and Kennedy Fried Chicken carryout restaurants as part of a year-long investigation, 11 NEWS reports.

Armed with search warrants, federal agents along with state, Baltimore County and city police searched 23 restaurants and the homes of the owners early Tuesday afternoon. One of the raids was conducted at the Kennedy Fried Chicken restaurant at Liberty Heights Avenue and Garrison Boulevard in northwest Baltimore.

FBI and INS agents seized evidence and removed a box full of documents at the restaurant, 11 NEWS reported. Agents also packed up records at the New York Fried Chicken in the 400 block of West Saratoga Street.

According to a federal affidavit, the restaurants' owners are accused of a number of charges that include:

# Conspiracy to defraud the United States

# Failing to file or fraudulently reporting income and expenses

# Filing fraudulent wage statements

# Tax evasion and bringing in and harboring illegal aliens

Federal agents raid a New York Fried Chicken restaurant in northwest Baltimore Tuesday. All of the Baltimore area restaurants under investigation are owned by males of Middle Eastern descent who are primarily from Afghanistan. And, the operators are from various countries including Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Morrocco and Somalia.

At the New York Fried Chicken restaurant at Liberty Heights and Gwynn Oak avenues, witnesses say they watched about 14 to 15 officers arrive suddenly and go inside the restaurant, 11 NEWS reported.

"I was going to the store and saw a bunch of cars pull up on the side and go into New York Chicken," witness Hellema Adams said.

Abderrahim Houti Back in September, WBAL-TV 11 NEWS first reported about a city police investigation involving a city raid where eight men were found living together in a sparsely furnished northwest Baltimore apartment.

Abderaheem Houti and others were held on immigration violations after police found fake IDs, notebooks full of Arabic writing, pamphlets on an Islamic holy war, and computers with a Web site link to 1,700 flight schools. Some of the people detained worked at a New York Fried Chicken restaurants.

There are more than 30 New York and Kennedy Fried Chicken restaurants located around Baltimore.

-- Anonymous, December 11, 2002

Answers

good cover for passing notes and stuff.

I wonder if this is something we should all be doing, monitoring these businesses that are owned by such people. But, would we want to end up like that woman in Georgia who reported the three med students? oh, btw, the authorities want to talk to them again and they refused. I wonder why.

-- Anonymous, December 13, 2002