By Cameron Arcand , Brooke Taylor | Fox News
Officials tout being 'full throttle on identifying and arresting known or suspected terrorists' as Iran sleeper cell threat looms
EXCLUSIVE: At least five more Iranian nationals were arrested on Monday in addition to the 11 announced by the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday morning.
On Monday, 45-year-old Mohammad Hassanpoor was arrested by officers in Baltimore and given a “Third County Notice.” He was previously criminally convicted of “assault with a deadly weapon or force likely to produce great bodily injury,” where he was sentenced to just under a year behind bars.
He was also previously sentenced roughly three months behind bars for “battery: spouse/ex sp/date/etc.” and sentenced to two years for stalking.
Kaveh Abedi, 45, was arrested in Chicago on Monday for “violations of the Immigration and Nationality Act” and had a 2001 conviction for selling cocaine.
Arish Rustami was also arrested and has a prior sex offense, and Abdolmohammad Raghibzadeh was taken into ICE custody on Monday. He’s had a deportation order since November 2005 from an Arizona immigration judge, and he’s currently an Iranian citizen, according to ICE.
In 1999, he previously faced arrests for “domestic violence, vandalism and intimidation” and faced 90 days behind bars and five years of probation as a result. He faced two other arrests and jail time for “violations of probation of the previous crimes.”
In May 2006, Raghibzadeh could not get proper paperwork to go back to Iran, so he was given an “order of supervision” and then released. But in 2007, he was arrested again by sheriffs in Santa Ana, Calif., for not following probation and had to spend the rest of it at the California Chino Detention Center, according to ICE.
Sahand Yousefinasrabadi was arrested Monday by federal authorities “during targeted enforcement action” in Forth Worth, Texas. Yousefinasrabadi was convicted in Sept. 2013 of aggravated sexual assault of a child, and he was asked in October 2013 to leave the U.S. by an immigration judge.
The arrests come amid concerns about Iranian sleeper cells in the United States following the strikes on nuclear sites in the Middle Eastern nation. While there is currently a ceasefire between Iran and Israel, DHS noted the arrests made since Sunday.