A United States federal judge has sentenced to life in prison, the Guyanese-born leader of a plot to blow up fuel lines and tanks at John F. Kennedy International (JFK) Airport in New York.
Judge Dora Irizarry of Federal District Court in Brooklyn imposed the stiff sentence on Russell Defreitas, 67, a former cargo worker at JFK, who is also a United States citizen.
“The defendant was a mastermind, this was his baby, this was his idea,” said the judge before handing down the sentence yesterday.
“The offenses that were contemplated here, that the jury found Mr. Defreitas guilty of, are extremely serious,” she added.
Defreitas was convicted in August of conspiracy to commit a terrorist attack after a trial in which prosecutors played secretly recorded conversations in which he planned the attack and expressed his abhorrence for the United States.
The recordings were made by a convicted drug dealer, Steven Francis, who worked as an informant and contributed some financial and logistical support to the conspirators.
Besides Defreitas, three other Caribbean-born men were also charged in the plot, included Abdul Kadir, who once served as mayor of Linden, Guyana’s second largest city, and a former member of Guyana’s parliament.
Kadir was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison in December.
Another defendant, Guyanese Abdel Nur, pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The fourth man, Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim, is yet to be tried. (CMC)