Terror Probe Targets Prison in Folsom
Counterterrorism officials investigating an alleged plot to attack National Guard recruitment centers, synagogues and other sites in Southern California said Tuesday they are investigating the possibility that the plot was hatched by Islamic extremists and gang members at a state prison in Folsom.
Details remained closely guarded, but law enforcement sources said they were actively investigating the breadth of possible connections between three men now in custody in Los Angeles and inmates at California State Prison, Sacramento, one of two prisons in Folsom, about 25 miles east of the capital.
The possibility of connections between prison gangs and potential terrorists has been a worry for U.S. officials for some time.
There are at least several significant investigations into the alleged use of federal and state prisons as bases for recruiting potential Islamic terrorists, according to a senior FBI counterterrorism official in Washington.
Investigators emphasized that they have not proved the alleged plot in the current case was hatched at the prison. Nor are they certain how many of about two dozen targets involved in the case might have been the site of a planned terrorist attack.
"We have no indication so far how many they might have gone after," said a law enforcement official involved in the case who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.
The investigators say they do know that an Islamic group called Jamiyyat Ul Islam Is Saheeh, or JIS, has had a presence at the prison for about five years and that its followers include both inmates and former inmates. The group's name translates from Arabic into the Assembly of Authentic Islam.
Devan Hawkes, a gang specialist with the Corrections Department, said the group was the smaller and newer of two Islamic gangs, referred to by agents as "disruptive groups," known to be operating in California prisons.
Officials involved in the investigation have three people in custody who are believed to be connected with the alleged plot -- Levar Haney Washington, 25; Gregory Vernon Patterson, a 21-year-old former employee of a duty-free shop at Los Angeles International Airport; and Hamad Riaz Samana, 21, of Inglewood. Washington is a former inmate at California State Prison, Sacramento, and a former gang member.
Authorities have filed only local robbery charges against Washington and Patterson. Both remain in custody at the Men's Central Jail.
