FBI ARRESTS 4 IN PLOT TO KILL FEDERAL AGENT; FRAUD SUSPECT CALLED LEADER.Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer FBI agents arrested four men Wednesday, including two from the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , for allegedly plotting a contract killing of a Secret Service agent who had investigated a credit card fraud Credit card fraud is a wide-ranging term for theft and fraud committed using a credit card or any similar payment mechanism as a fraudulent source of funds in a transaction. The purpose may be to obtain goods without paying, or to obtain unauthorized funds from an account. ring. The $50,000 ``hit'' was arranged by a Glendale man facing charges in a $1 million credit card scheme as a way of damaging the case and scaring off other witnesses before the matter went to trial, officials said. ``It's outrageous conduct on the part of the criminal community,'' said James E. Bauer, Secret Service special agent in charge of the office in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , during a news conference at the Roybal Federal Building. ``When you have a group of people willing to put out a contract to kill a federal law enforcement officer, we consider that to be a very, very serious offense,'' added Guadalupe Gonzalez, FBI special agent in charge of the Los Angeles branch. Robert Kazarian, 33, is the man suspected of arranging the hit, officials said. He was arrested with seven other people last month on suspicion of wire fraud involving the setting up of false businesses to access credit card information. Investigators believe the ring may be responsible for $1 million in credit card losses. Besides Kazarian, those charged Wednesday with conspiring to murder a federal agent were: Rafael ``Raffo'' Kazaryants, 43, of North Hollywood; Panos Zhamkochyan, 29, of Los Angeles; Sahak Mazmanyan, 39, of Montebello; and Arshak Kazarian, 37, of Tujunga, Robert Kazarian's brother. An arrest warrant has been issued for Arshak Kazarian whose whereabouts where·a·bouts adv. About where; in, at, or near what location: Whereabouts do you live? n. (used with a sing. or pl. are unknown. All of the suspects are of Armenian descent descent, in anthropology, method of classifying individuals in terms of their various kinship connections. Matrilineal and patrilineal descent refer to the mother's or father's sib (or other group), respectively. , according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Bauer. The investigation is being handled by the FBI's Russian Russian associated in some way with Russia. Russian blue a breed of cats with short, dense, silver-tipped blue-colored coat and vivid green eyes. Organized Crime Squad, which was created to target crime involving immigrant groups. The four defendants appeared before a federal magistrate Any individual who has the power of a public civil officer or inferior judicial officer, such as a Justice of the Peace. The various state judicial systems provide for judicial officers who are often called magistrates, justices of the peace, or police justices. Wednesday to face the charges. Magistrate Judge Ann I. Jones ordered all four defendants detained de·tain tr.v. de·tained, de·tain·ing, de·tains 1. To keep from proceeding; delay or retard. 2. To keep in custody or temporary confinement: pending arraignment A criminal proceeding at which the defendant is officially called before a court of competent jurisdiction, informed of the offense charged in the complaint, information, indictment, or other charging document, and asked to enter a plea of guilty, not guilty, or as otherwise permitted and a hearing on bail. ``All lies,'' Kazaryants muttered to supporters in the courtroom as he was led out by marshals. William L. O'Bryan, the court-appointed attorney for Robert Kazarian, told reporters after the hearing that his client denies any knowledge of the crimes alleged by federal agents. O'Bryan said he has a hard time believing that anyone would risk a life sentence for conspiring to kill a federal agent over a white collar criminal charge that could result in a couple of years in prison at most. The attorney said the case appears ``thin'' and largely based on the work of an informant informant Historian Medtalk A person who provides a medical history who the complaint acknowledges has a history of drug use. The unidentified informant brought the plot to the attention of the FBI well in advance. Identified in the complaint only as a ``cooperating witness,'' the informant told agents that during a meeting at a Montebello doughnut shop, Mazmanyan and Kazaryants discussed the killing of a Secret Service agent, the complaint alleges. The witness agreed to wear a wire during subsequent meetings with Mazmanyan, Kazaryants and Arshak Kazarian and Zhamkochyan, when the plot to murder the Secret Service agent was discussed, and negotiations took place over payments for the killing and for the purchase of a gun, the complaint alleges. The informant originally asked for $100,000, but later agreed to $50,000 to arrange the killing of the agent. The informant arrived at one meeting to find Arshak Kazarian talking on the telephone with his jailed brother, the complaint alleges. Tapes of the call from the jail indicated that Robert Kazarian said the informant was asking too much for ``the deal,'' according to the criminal complaint. Zhamkochyan allegedly said during the telephone call with Robert Kazarian that ``If you say yes, he will shoot . . .,'' the complaint says. During a Sept. 13 meeting at the doughnut shop, Arshak Kazarian allegedly gave the informant an envelope containing $15,000 in cash as the down payment in the contract killing. Originally, $3,000 was going to be used to acquire an AK-47 assault rifle assault rifle Military firearm that is chambered for ammunition of reduced size or propellant charge and has the capacity to switch between semiautomatic and fully automatic fire. from military sources for the murder, but Mazmanyan later acquired a 9 mm handgun for the job and gave it to the cooperating witness, officials say. Federal agents served search warrants on seven locations Wednesday including suspects' homes in North Hollywood and Tujunga. |
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