Developing: FBI, DEA Thwart Plot By Iran To Assassinate Saudi Envoy; Attack Embassies On US Soil

This is a developing story. CNN is reporting that according to US officials, the FBI and DEA have disrupted a plot by elements of the Iranian government to kill a Saudi envoy to U.S. on American soil.

This would necessarily complicate relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, but I have to question the kind of motivations that Iran would try such an attack, let alone an attack of that kind on US soil. It would be the kind of action that would push the US to take a stronger stance against Iran, including still stronger sanctions and other actions.

MSNBC has more, including that the plot included attacks on Saudi and Israeli embassies in the US.

The criminal complaint, unsealed in federal court in New York City, identified the two alleged plotters as Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri.

Holder said Arbabsiar, who was arrested on Sept. 29 in New York, was working for the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard.

Shakuri, who is based in Iran, remains at large, Holder said.

Both are originally from Iran and Arbabsiar is a naturalized U.S. citizen, the complaint said.

Saudi Arabia's ambassador is Adel Al-Jubeir, who has served in that post since 2007.

The indictment is the result of a sting operation conducted by the FBI, sources tell NBC News.

The case started when one of the suspects, who lived in Texas, made contact with an undercover DEA informant and asked for assistance from the Zetas drug cartel in Mexico to assassinate the ambassador, the sources said.

ABC News reported that Arbabsiar was the one who made contact. A source said he reportedly claimed he was being "directed by high-ranking members of the Iranian government," including a cousin who was "a member of the Iranian army but did not wear a uniform."

Arbabsiar allegedly wired $50,000 to the informant as a down payment on a $1.5 million assassination fee.

UPDATE:
A copy of the Justice Department amended complaint can be found here. They are charged with the following:

conspiracy to murder a foreign official; conspiracy to engage in foreign travel and use of interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire; conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives); and conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism transcending national boundaries. Arbabsiar is further charged with an additional count of foreign travel and use of interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Coast Guard Makes Biggest Bust In U.S. History

The price of coke just got VERY expensive.

March 21, 2007 — - At nearly 20 tons, it's the largest maritime cocaine bust in U.S. history. The U.S. Coast Guard announced today that it seized 42,845 pounds of the drug from the Gatun, a Panamanian ship. Two of the Coast Guard's cutters approached the ship Sunday after a patrol plane spotted the vessel about 20 miles southwest of the Panamanian coast.

Drug Enforcement Administration administrator Karen Tandy pointed out that usually drug traffickers store their caches in secret compartments or conceal them with other legitimate cargo, but this shipment wasn't exactly hidden.

"They simply loaded these bales of cocaine into cargo containers on the top of the deck of this freighter. They were hiding in plain sight on the main deck."

Charley Diaz captains of one of the Coast Guard ships that closed in on the Gatun. He said the Gatun's crew did not resist but appeared nervous as the Coast Guard approached the crew's vessel. Diaz acknowledged the Panamanian ship was carrying some legal cargo, but that the "bales [of cocaine] were just piled high" in containers on the ship's deck, "almost up to the ceiling," Diaz described. "To think that any one of those containers, any two containers, can hold this much drugs is eye-opening."

Hitting Drug Traffickers 'Where It Hurts'

Tandy estimated the haul of cocaine could have sold on the street for about $600 million. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said, "Through collaboration, we've been able to strengthen our counternarcotics efforts, and to send a strong message to drug traffickers where it hurts -- in their pocket."

Cash, Drugs and Cartels

This bust blows past the old record of 30,109 pounds, seized from a ship in September 2004.

And the Coast Guard raid comes on the heels of a record-breaking cash seizure by the DEA last week. In cooperation with Mexican officials, that agency confiscated $205 million from chemical brokers who had provided Mexican cartels with the supplies to make methamphetamine.

In January, the DEA announced the extradition of 15 suspects tied to four Mexican drug cartels.

"That makes three big strikes in less than two months against the once untouchable and feared Mexican drug cartels that are responsible for so much of the drug supply in the United States," said Tandy.

Well congrats to the Coast Guard and the DEA. It boggles my mind, although it shouldn't, that there is that much demand for 20 tons of cocaine. 20 tons of something that is sold in grams. I am assuming that is 20 tons uncut. The amount is just mind blowing (literally.)