Opinion ID: 781722
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Indictment and Apprehension of Yousef and Ismoil

Text: 291 Not long after the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993, investigators identified Yousef and Ismoil as prime suspects in the bombing. The first break in the investigation came almost immediately, when the vehicle identification number of the rented van used to transport the bomb was recovered from the debris of the bombing. Investigators traced this number to a leasing agency in Jersey City, New Jersey. When defendant Salameh returned to the leasing agency six days after the bombing to obtain his deposit, FBI agents were waiting to arrest him. Searches and information emanating from that arrest ultimately led to the identification of Yousef and Ismoil as the two individuals who drove the bomb-laden van into the basement parking garage of the World Trade Center. 292 Yousef was indicted in the first superseding indictment, filed on March 31, 1993. As described above, Yousef was not apprehended until nearly two years later, when United States authorities received a tip from a confidential informant that Yousef could be found in Islamabad, Pakistan. See United States v. Yousef, 925 F.Supp. 1063, 1065-66 (S.D.N.Y.1996). Yousef was arrested in Islamabad on February 7, 1995 and was transferred to United States custody the next day pursuant to an extradition request. See id. at 1066. After being taken into custody by the United States and while on a flight from Pakistan to the United States, FBI agents read Yousef Miranda warnings and Yousef signed a waiver of rights form. Id. at 1067. Following the waiver of his rights, Yousef made a detailed statement to the agents in which he admitted that he had traveled to the United States in 1992 with defendant Ajaj in order to select American bombing targets, that he and another person had driven the van containing the bomb into the World Trade Center garage and prepared it to detonate, and that he had fled the country the same day. 293 Investigators did not link Ismoil to the World Trade Center bombing until after the first World Trade Center bombing trial ended in March 1994 with convictions of defendants Salameh, Ajaj, Nidal Ayyad, and Mahmoud Abouhalima. See generally Salameh I, 152 F.3d 88. On August 8, 1994, the Government filed the seventh superseding indictment, which named Ismoil as a defendant. Ismoil was apprehended in Jordan in July 1995 and extradited to the United States. While in Jordanian custody, Ismoil made oral and written statements to Jordanian authorities in which he admitted driving a van into the World Trade Center garage; he stated, however, that he did not know until after he left the parked van that it contained a bomb.