SARASOTA - A businessman was arrested Friday on charges that he was plotting to kill a federal informer responsible for his arrest three years ago, officials said.
Wissam Taysir Hammoudwas arrested at his cellular phone store, said Steve Cole, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa. Hammoud was serving five years of probation for selling a machine gun to an undercover ATF agent in September 2001, court records show.
Hammoud was charged with possession of a firearm, possession of a silencer and solicitation to commit murder. He was being held at the Hillsborough County jail in Tampa pending a bail hearing set for Tuesday.Sara Oates, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Tampa, said Hammoud was being investigated in connection with inquiring about blowing up a federal building, threatening to kill a government informer and gathering information about a federal agent.
