Eyad Farah, Firearms Smuggling, Florida 2014

Tampa, Florida – Eyad Farah, a 41-year-old man from Barrington, Texas, has been charged with conspiring to smuggle firearms without a license, exporting firearms without a license, and smuggling firearms from the United States.

According to the indictment, Farah is part of a network of individuals involved in smuggling firearms from the United States to the Middle East. The indictment alleges that the firearms were concealed in vehicles that had been purchased at used car auctions in Central Florida. The vehicles were then scheduled for export to Jordan.

Farah was arrested at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany on June 2, 2015. He made his initial appearance before United States Magistrate Judge Julie S. Sneed earlier today.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

Farah’s co-conspirator, Mahmoud Abdel-Ghani Mohammad Assaf, previously pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy and is currently awaiting sentencing. Yasser Ahmad Obeid, a defendant in a related case, has also pleaded guilty. In December 2014, he was sentenced to four years and three months in federal prison.

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, with assistance from the Office of International Affairs. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Josephine W. Thomas and Adam M. Saltzman.

Farah faces a maximum penalty of 5 years in federal prison for the conspiracy offense, up to 10 years’ imprisonment on the export charge, and up to 20 years in federal prison for the smuggling charge if convicted.

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