Al Qaeda suspect living in Morocco

SUSPECTED Al Qaeda terrorist Adnan Gulshair Muhammed El Shukrijumah, who is believed to be holding a Trinidad and Tobago passport, is now living in Morocco, according to his family based in South Florida. But the TT Police are still looking out for him coming to this country, according to Head of Special Branch, Assistant Commissioner Frank Diaz yesterday.

Diaz confirmed that the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) have requested assistance from the TT Police to be on the lookout for El Shukrijumah, a Saudi Arabian who may be plotting terrorist activities against the United States. “They (the FBI) never said he was in Trinidad. They asked us to be on the lookout for him,” Diaz added. According to records, El Shukrijumah came to Trinidad in 2001, just before the September 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC. FBI agents called a press conference in Florida on Monday to underscore the priority federal investigators have put on tracking down El Shukrijumah, who left his parents’ Florida home months before the September 11 attacks and has never returned.

El Shukrijumah is thought to be living out of the country, and federal investigators are working with police in Morocco and Trinidad searching for clues. Those countries are among several apparent stopping points for the Saudi Arabian native who, federal agents said, uses several aliases and passports. El Shukrijumah’s father Shaykh said his son left in May 2001, several months before the attacks. According to his family, the wanted man travelled frequently, selling Ismalic items and clothing. “He called us from Trinidad after it happened,” his mother Zuhrah said. “He was as surprised as any of us. I told him not to come back, that everything had changed here.” So far, no charges have been lodged against El Shukrijumah, 27, whom several captured al-Qaida leaders have identified as a key player in the network’s terror activities.