Lebanese native returned to Philadelphia to face charges

A Lebanese native charged with helping to finance the extremist group Hezbollah arrived in Philadelphia late Thursday after his extradition from Paraguay, U.S. law enforcement sources said.

Moussa Ali Hamdan, a former Camden County resident with dual Lebanese and American citizenship, had been held in Paraguay since June on U.S. charges related to a major FBI counterterrorism investigation in Philadelphia.

According to the indictment, Hamdan dealt in stolen goods, primarily cell phones and video games, and introduced undercover agents and informants to high-level Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon.

Hamdan was one of two dozen suspected Hezbollah operatives and sympathizers indicted in Philadelphia in 2009, including Dani Tarraf of Slovakia. The FBI alleges that Tarraf is a Hezbollah weapons-procurement officer, and that he gave undercover agents a $20,000 down payment for Stinger antiaircraft missiles. Tarraf has pleaded not guilty.

Hamdan was flown on a U.S. government plane to Washington on Thursday and driven to Philadelphia, according to three American law enforcement officials.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Hamdan's extradition was not going to be announced for security reasons until he appeared at a brief hearing in federal court in Philadelphia on Friday afternoon.

But late Thursday, in the Paraguayan capital, Asunción, anti-drug-trafficking agent Maria Mercedes Castineira told the Associated Press that three Lebanese men had been put on a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration plane after being held in Paraguayan jails.

Hamdan, who had fled to Paraguay from New York in June, was one of them. The DEA plane was sent to pick up two men charged in unrelated drug cases, and Hamdan was transported at the same time for the sake of convenience. The other two men were being held in Washington: Nemir Ali Zhayter on heroin charges and Amer Zoher El Hossni on cocaine charges.

Hamdan worked as a carpet installer in Cinnaminson in 2007 and '08, and operated a low-end car dealership along Route 130. During that period, he bought more than $154,000 worth of what he thought were stolen electronics and cars from undercover agents, authorities said.

Hamdan, who was being held in the federal prison in Philadelphia, could not be reached for comment. He was expected to be appointed a lawyer at Friday's hearing.

Speaking briefly to a Paraguayan television station after his arrest last year, Hamdan said he was targeted by U.S. authorities because he is Muslim. His Paraguayan lawyer told reporters that Hamdan was innocent.

Patty Hartman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, declined to comment Thursday night.