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On October 2 at 5 a.m., a delivery driver spotted a wrecked Chevrolet Silverado behind the Mayflower Place shopping center in Hurst.
When police arrived to inspect the vehicle, they spotted two gun cases that contained a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson pistol and a Hawk Industries 12-gauge shotgun. That didn’t necessarily set off alarm bells — guns in pickup trucks aren’t exactly uncommon around there — but the fake CIA and Department of Defense ID badges upon opening the truck certainly did.
Investigators searched the vehicle without a warrant after spotting the guns and a decal on the windshield suggesting it was a military police vehicle, according the U.S. Attorney’s office. They determined the car belonged to Azeez Ahmed Al-Ghaziani, the 30-year-old owner of a dry cleaning business in the shopping center.
Al-Ghaziani was arrested after he wandered out the back door of his business, where he had been sleeping. A search of the business, with a warrant this time, turned up more fake military documents, plus a stash of methamphetamine.
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Al-Ghaziani’s arrest prompted a good degree of fairly irresponsible speculation as to his plans.
There’s still no word on what those might have been, but the U.S. Attorney’s office sent word that a grand jury indicted Al-Ghaziani yesterday on one count of possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance and one count of fraudulent production of an identification document.
If Al-Ghaziani is convicted, he faces a maximum 25 years in prison and $500,000 fine.
