Mohamad Elzahabi

Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi ( Mohamad Kamal El-Zahabi) is a Lebanese national who was granted permanent resident status in the United States in 1986, after first arriving on a student visa. During the 1990s, he worked as a small arms instructor at an Afghan training camp when the country was engulfed in civil war among the mujahideen following the Soviet withdrawal. He also fought in Lebanon and Chechnya in the 1990s.

After returning to the United States in the 1990s, he and his brother had a garage in New York. Later he worked as a taxi cab driver and last, became a truck driver. The FBI started tracking him, and they interrogated him at length in 2003, with his cooperation.

He was arrested in Texas in 2004 based on his past associations. In 2007, he was convicted of immigration fraud, sentenced to time served and deported.

Entry to United States Elzahabi entered the United States in 1984 on a student visa. In 1986, he was granted permanent resident status.

He was a sniper and trained others on the use of the Dragunov sniper rifle at the Khalden training camp.

With the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989, Elzahabi returned to the United States. When later asked by The Globe and Mail to explain what had happened amongst the Arab foreign fighters following the war, he replied, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". United States officials claim he was later given $300,000 by an unknown party who asked him to carry it into the embattled Russian region.

Elzahabi received his insurance clearance to begin work as a hazardous freight hauler in April 2004.

Legal trouble While the [guidelines] might contemplate a sentencing range of 0-6 months for an ordinary alien who had used a fraudulently obtained green card to apply for jobs, such a sentence would be wholly inappropriate for this defendant, who is anything but ordinary.

The RCMP provided faxes seized from Abdullah Almalki's house during Project O Canada, detailing the sale of the walkie-talkies to Elzahabi's brother. The FBI later affirmed that it bugged and videotaped Elzahabi's cell.

Deportation In 2007, he was convicted of possessing false immigration documents following 8 hours of jury deliberation. He was sentenced to time served and released to the Department of Justice for deportation proceedings. He was taken from prison in Elk River, Minnesota, to the Immigration Holding Centre in El Paso, Texas and was eventually deported from the United States the same year.