A federal magistrate denies bail for a Sarasota cell phone store owner facing an eight-count weapons indictment.
By GRAHAM BRINK
Published January 7, 2004
TAMPA - Federal authorities say Sarasota businessman Wissam Taysir Hammoud bragged about having ties to a terrorist organization and plotted to kill an informant and federal investigator involved in his 2001 indictment on weapons charges.
Hammoud, 38, was in federal court Tuesday to face a violation of probation charge and an eight-count weapons indictment.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay Hoffer said at the hearing that Hammoud could also be indicted in the near future in connection with the alleged murder plan.
Hammoud, the owner of a cellular phone store, was recorded on audio and videotape talking about how he felt he was unjustly arrested on the 2001 charges and wanted the informant and the federal agent killed, according to federal authorities.
An unidentified witness heard Hammoud say on Dec. 23 that he wanted to use a truck loaded with propane and explosives to blow up a federal agency in Sarasota, according to court documents.
Federal authorities said he also was taped talking about his ties to Hezbollah, a Lebanese guerrilla group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department. Hammoud told a witness last year that he sent night-vision goggles to Hezbollah members and also helped them buy assault weapons, according to a 12-page FBI affidavit.
"He has made several statements regarding his affiliations with terrorist organizations," said Steve Cole, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa. "But I cannot comment on the validity of those statements."
Hammoud's lawyer, Matthew Farmer, said in court that Hammoud has had some mental health problems as a result of brain injuries. Farmer told the judge that Hammoud was easily influenced, and that the videotapes will show that the agents "prodded" his client into making the statements about killing the federal agent and witness.
In September 2001, a federal grand jury indicted Hammoud, charging that he sold a machine gun and short barrel shotgun to an undercover federal agent. A jury convicted him in June 2002, and the judge sentenced him to one year of house arrest and five years of probation. Farmer said in court that Hammoud received the lesser sentence, instead of possible prison time, because of his mental health problems.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark Pizzo declined to set bail for Hammoud. Pizzo said Hammoud had been given mental health counseling while on probation for the 2001 charges, but it didn't help. The current charges include possession of firearms by a convicted felon, possession, manufacture and transfer of a silencer and transfer of a firearm for use in a crime of violence.
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report. Times reporter Graham Brink can be reached at 226-3365 or brink@sptimes.com
