The Justice Department said two men charged with impersonating federal agents pose a danger to the community and a flight risk, citing a stockpile of weapons found in their apartments, extensive overseas travel and foreign contacts, including an uncorroborated connection to the Pakistani intelligence service.
In a memo arguing that the two men should remain detained pending trial, prosecutors wrote that Arian Taherzadeh and Haider Ali compromised federal law enforcement operations and created a potential risk to national security.
“The Defendants were not merely playing dress-up,” prosecutors wrote in the memo filed on Friday. “They had firearms, they had ammunition, they had body armor, they had tactical gear, they had surveillance equipment.”
Taherzadeh and Ali were arrested earlier this week and charged with impersonating Department of Homeland Security agents for more than two years. They gave expensive gifts to federal agents and provided them apartments in Washington, DC, according to the detention memo. Taherzadeh allegedly offered to purchase a $2,000 assault rifle for a Secret Service agent on the first lady’s protective detail, according to an affidavit.
