Friday, June 25, 2010

Va. Somali smuggler case appealed

By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer

The Virginia man who told authorities he helped smuggle 270 Somalis into the U.S. from Kenya has appealed his three-year probation sentence, court records show.

Anthony Joseph Tracy’s case remains shrouded in mystery. Earlier this year, The Washington Examiner reported how Tracy was accused of smuggling the Somalis into the U.S. using his illicit travel agency in Kenya. On June 4, a federal judge in Alexandria sentenced him to the four months of time he had already spent behind bars and three years probation — then released him. At some point since his arrest, Tracy filed a guilty plea, but it’s sealed and there’s no way to know what crimes he admitted to breaking.

What is known is that he has been some form of government informant since 2002 and failed a lie detector test when asked whether he helped smuggle members of the Al-Qaeda-linked Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab. Federal immigration investigators have been unable to locate any of the Somalis Tracy claimed to have smuggled.

Calls to Tracy’s attorney on Thursday were not immediately returned.

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