How come we never heard not one word about this from our local media or the tal= king faces? Jeff

Iranian caught with large weapons cache crossing border into Washington

Posted on June 9, 2010 by creeping =

In contrast to the one par= agraph of info on the Pakistani crossing into Arizona, a very well-detailed report= by Paul Da= quilante at NewsRegister.com.

When federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents served a search warrant = last Wednesday on a storage unit in Ferndale, Wash., just south of the Canadian border, they discovered more than $30,000 worth of high-powered weaponry, including a .50-caliber sniper rifle.

The find was detailed in an affidavit filed by the Western District Court of Washington against illegal alien Iranian Hamid Malekpour, also known as Oliver King, about 35 ye= ars old.

Much of the weaponry was packed into boxes bearing shipping labels addressed to McMinnville Hunting & Police Supplies Inc., the affidavit states. The obscure business, located in a shuttered, unsigned office at 1900 N.E. High= way 99W, is owned by Amir Zarandi.

King initially agreed to let them search his vehicle. That search turned up t= wo shotguns, two semiautomatic handguns and about 480 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition, which they believe he picked up in McMinnville.<= /span>

When King revoked permission for any further search without a warrant, the agents obtained a warrant to search a storage unit he was renting at the facility.= In it, they found a .50-caliber sniper rifle, two .308-caliber sniper rifle= s, three .300-caliber sniper rifles, eight law enforcement style .223-caliber rifles, three Glock semi-automatic handguns, 100 .223-caliber magazines, 3,800 rounds of .223-caliber ammunition, various high-powered scopes and other equipment.

Crabtree marveled at the find.

“Have you ever seen a .50-caliber round?” he asked. “That’s a b= ig round — the stuff you shoot at airplanes and tanks. If a bunch off .50-caliber rounds started going off in McMinnville = 230; ”

According to documents found in King’s car, he obtained a gun dealer’s license in Canada under his given name Hamid Malekpour.

Authorities aren’t sure yet of the legality of the King name, but say he was born= in Tehran, Iran, in 1975 as Hamid Malekpour.

Much more including multiple passpo= rts and lies to immigration officials. Hat tip Robert Moon. <= /o:p>

See the original story below dated May 28th.....

Arms cache tied to Mac

Public Saf= ety | Fri, 05/28/2010

By Paul Daquilante = http://www.newsregister.com/article/44432-arms%20cache%20tied%20mac

(The News-Register is located at 611 N.E. Third Street in historic downtown McMinnville, OR.)

When federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents served a search warrant last Wednesday on a storage unit in Ferndale, Wash., just so= uth of the Canadian border, they discovered more than $30,000 worth of high-pow= ered weaponry, including a .50-caliber sniper rifle.

The find was detailed in an affidavit filed by the Western District Court of Washington against illegal alien Iranian Hamid = Malekpour, also known as Oliver King, about 35 years = old.

McMinnville does not require business licensing, according to City Attorney Candice Hai= nes, but the state does. The gun dealership has been registered with the Secreta= ry of State’s Corporation Division in the past, but missed its scheduled renewal date of May 11.

A small sign on the door indicates hours are by appointment only. Its website dead-ends with “under construction” notices.
Yamhill County Sheriff’s Capt. Ken Summers said he’d never hear= d of the business, and knew of no one in the department who had.

He said the sheriff’s office buys its firearms from Keith’s Sporti= ng Goods in Gresham. He said he knows of no law enforcement agency that might = deal with Zarandi.

City and county law enforcement personnel were also in the dark about the federal activity conducted in connection with the shop — and weren’t particularly happy about that.

Capt. Dennis Marks said McMinnville police were not contacted by ICE agents regar= ding the surveillance work they were engaged in, or about King.

“After he had been arrested, I believe, the sheriff faxed a copy of a story to the chief and asked if we were aware of this,” Marks said.

Chief Ron Noble replied in the negative, he said.

Sheriff Jack Crabtree said his office had not been notified either, which he found disturbing.

“I have been in contact with Chief Noble,” Crabtree said. “Initial inquiries have been made to federal agencies involved. Why were we not informed? I’ve been asked that by a lot of people.̶= 1;

Crabtree added, “We have a great relationship with agencies like the FBI and I= CE. Quite frankly, I would have expected to be informed. This is not acceptable= to me. Absolutely, we should have been informed.”

He doesn’t believe local law enforcement agencies were intentionally ignored. He feels there was a lack of communcation at ICE’s end.

The McMinnville office building is owned by FH Project Inc. of Milwaukie, accor= ding to the Yamhill County Assessor’s office.
The business is registered with the state, with a scheduled renewal date of July 9. It is actively occupied by other tenants engaging in more open and better advertised modes of operation.

Agents started tailing King — the name on the passport he used both for rece= nt visits to Iran and last week’s border crossing — in Blaine, Was= h. They followed him to the McMinnville gun shop, where he is listed on the le= ase, and watched him load several boxes of high-powered firearms and ammunition there last Wednesday morning.

They then followed him back north to a storage facility in Ferndale, where they = took him into custody.

King, who once held a Canadian gun dealer’s license under his given name of= Malekpour, was charged with one count each of being an illegal alien in possession of firearms and ammunition and giving a false statement to a government agency. Both are felonies.

He made his initial appearance Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle befo= re Federal Magistrate Mary Alice Theiler. He has a hearing on his custody stat= us scheduled today.

According to a detention order, King was taken into custody on the basis of the felony charges, a belief he is a “serious flight risk” and a need to ensure the safety of people and communities.

Susan M. Roe, an assistant U.S. attorney, is prosecuting the case. King is being represented by Michael Martin of the Seattle law firm of Siderius Lonergan & Martin.

The affidavit, submitted by Jennifer Hinckley, ICE Special Agent in Blaine, all= eges:
About 10:15 p.m. last Tuesday, King applied for entry to the United States = at the Peace Arch Port of Entry in Blaine.

He told Customs and Border Protection officers he was entering to pick up his = wife at a Target store at a mall in nearby Bellingham. However, agents have determined the store actually closed prior to King’s arrival at the border.
He presented a Canadian passport that had just been issued that morning. Wh= en questioned, he said his old passport had gone through the washing machine.<= o:p>

However, a subsequent search turned up his original Canadian passport, which showed = no evidence of water damage and wouldn’t expire until 2013. It contained three visas for travel to Iran, two issued last year and one earlier this y= ear.
According to the passport stamps, King traveled to Iran in the spring of bo= th years. One of the visas is so current it won’t expire until next mont= h.

Suspicious about King’s Target and passport stories, ICE agents began tailing him when he crossed the border. They quickly determined he had lied about going= to the mall, because he drove past without stopping or picking anyone up.=

He continued south on Interstate 5 to Chehalis, where he slept for a few hours. Then he drove south into Oregon, where he was tailed to the McMinnville gun shop.

He was seen entering the office complex, emerging with several cardboard boxes= and loading them into his vehicle. He then headed back north, not stopping unti= l he reached the storage facility in Ferndale, about 10 miles south of the borde= r.

Confronted there by agents, King initially agreed to let them search his vehicle. That search turned up two shotguns, two semiautomatic handguns and about 480 rou= nds of .50-caliber ammunition, which they believe he picked up in McMinnville.<= o:p>

When King revoked permission for any further search without a warrant, the agents obtained a warrant to search a storage unit he was renting at the facility.= In it, they found a .50-caliber sniper rifle, two .308-caliber sniper rifles, three .300-caliber sniper rifles, eight law enforcement style .223-caliber rifles, three Glock semi-automatic handguns, 100 .223-caliber magazines, 3,800 rounds of .223-caliber ammunition, various high-powered scopes and other equipment.

Crabtree marveled at the find.

According to documents found in King’s car, he obtained a gun dealer’s license in Canada under his given name Hamid Malekpour.

The government revoked it at one point on the grounds he was selling firearms o= ver the Internet, which is illegal under Canadian law, and keeping incomplete records. However, his dealer’s license may since have been reinstated= and agents found he had six firearms currently registered under the name Malekpour.

At last week’s crossing, King listed his employment as a technical execu= tive with Modeling Intelligence Corp. of Vancouver, B.C. A female associate was listed as the owner.

During the subsequent search of his car, agents found a document purporting to ver= ify his employment with the firm. It was signed by the associate.

In the course of a previous crossing, King had produced a résumé listing him as a business consultant holding advanced degrees from the Whar= ton School of Business and Technical University of Denmark.

When questioned by agents about the cache in his car, which included all the .50-caliber ammunition, he claimed to be a hunter. As evidence, he produced= a computer image of a recently expired North Dakota hunting license.

In his wallet, agents found a Canadian hunting license, issued the previous da= y in the name of Hamid Malekpou= r. They also found a valid British Columbia driver’s license in the name= of King, issued in 2008, and a Canadian postal receipt from the previous day in the name of Malekpour.

Authorities aren’t sure yet of the legality of the King name, but say he was born= in Tehran, Iran, in 1975 as Hamid Malekpour.
Regardless of the validity of the hunting licenses, the size and type of firearms and ammunition found in his car and storage unit are not consistent with recreational hunting, according to the affidavit.

King would not have been allowed into the U.S. at Blaine had he given accurate a= nd true information as to his purpose for his visit — to engage in the interstate possession and transportation of firearms and ammunition, the affidavit states. Thus he is in the country illegally, it alleges.

According to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, a federal firearms license has been issued to someone at the address of the McMinnville gun sh= op, presumably Zarandi. However, Crabtree said no o= ne by that name holds a concealed handgun license in Yamhill County.