Lebanese Man Indicted in Connection With Scheme to Smuggle Guns to Lebanon

Fadi Yassine, age 42, a Lebanese citizen, has been charged in a one-count Indictment filed in the Northern District of Iowa with conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act and to ship, transport, and deal firearms without a license.

Yassine was arrested on February 5 in New York City as he entered the United States from Lebanon. Yassine was arrested on a warrant issued in the Northern District of Iowa on a criminal complaint charging him with conspiring to violate the Arms Export Control Act. He made an initial appearance in federal court in Cedar Rapids earlier this week. Yassine has been ordered detained without bond pending trial.

According to allegations contained in the Indictment, Yassine conspired with others, including Ali Herz, to ship guns to Lebanon for resale there. The Indictment alleges that firearms were shipped to Lebanon from Cedar Rapids on about four occasions during 2014 and 2015.

Yassine will be arraigned on the Indictment in federal court in Cedar Rapids, on March 7, 2017 at 2:30 p.m.

As with any criminal case, a charge is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Richard L. Murphy and was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 17-CR-00011.

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