Feds suspect terrorist link to L.A. robberies

LOS ANGELES — A police probe that began with a series of gas-station holdups here has broadened into an investigation of a possible terrorist plot and connections to a radical Islamic group believed to be operating in the California prison system, law-enforcement sources said.

The crime spree, which police said ended with last month's arrest of two local men, drew the interest of counterterrorism officials when a search of one suspect's home turned up "jihadist" literature, bulletproof vests and a list of addresses for area synagogues, the Israeli consulate, National Guard centers and other sites.

Now, federal officials have arrested a third man, a Pakistani national who lived in south Los Angeles near the others, in connection with the investigation, and a law-enforcement official said more arrests may follow.

Others under scrutiny are already in prison, said the official, who noted that investigators believe at least one of the suspects may have converted to Islam while incarcerated.

"From the evidence so far, there is reason to believe that they were planning attacks and that some of those locations may have been targets," said the U.S. official, who requested anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

The official said investigators are looking into whether the suspects have links to a radical Islamic group known as Jamiyyat Ul Islam Is Saheeh, roughly translated as the Assembly of Authentic Islam, which has been known to have a presence in a state prison where one of the suspects was recently incarcerated.

"The real fear here is that this might be a truly homegrown type of case, with suspects organizing on their own to carry off some type of operation here in the United States," the official said.

Details of the investigation's latest turn remained sketchy. While the first two suspects remain in a local jail on state charges, the federal charges for the third suspect, Hammad Riaz Samana — whose arrest last week was first reported yesterday by the Los Angeles Times — remain sealed, according to law-enforcement officials.

Samana, 21, of Los Angeles, is being held at a federal detention center downtown, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons Web site.

Officials would not say what led them to Samana or how he may have been connected to the other men, Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, and Levar Haney Washington, 25, arrested last month during a police stakeout of a gas station.

Both were charged with nine counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery.