Operation Crevice - The Arrests

The Arrests

A number of arrests were made, and 1,300 pounds (600 kg) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, which can be used in making bombs, were confiscated. The chemical was seized in a storage space in Hanwell in west London.

At least six homes in Langley Green, in Crawley, were searched, and an area was excavated at one site. A biscuit tin filled with aluminium powder, another potential bomb ingredient, was recovered behind a garden shed.

The arrest of software engineer Mohammad Momin Khawaja on 29 March 2004, in Ottawa, Canada, was reportedly related to Operation Crevice. He was reportedly experimenting with remote-controlled detonators.

The court case against the men began in March 2006 and lasted till April 30, 2007. The jury was out for 27 days. The BBC report named the accused as:

• Salahuddin Amin, 31, from Luton, Bedfordshire
• Jawad Akbar, 22, from Crawley, West Sussex
• Anthony Garcia (also known as Rahman Benouis), 23, of Ilford, east London
• Nabeel Hussain, 20, of Horley, Surrey (subsequently found not guilty)
• Omar Khyam, 24-year old computer student from Crawley, West Sussex who was captain of the Sussex Under-18 Cricket team and expected to play for the English national team. He had traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2000.
• Waheed Mahmood, 34, from Crawley, West Sussex
• Shujah Mahmood, 19, from Crawley, West Sussex (subsequently found not guilty)

Mohammad Momin Khawaja, in custody in Canada, also stands as the 8th man charged of being part of the alleged plot. A ninth man, Mohammed Junaid Babar is the prosecution's star witness. An alleged leader of this group was a man named Mohammed Quayyum Khan who was an alleged associate of both Abu Hamza & Omar Bakri. Mohammed Quayyum Khan is apparently still at large after the police, inexplicably, failed to arrest him. British Intelligence Services have also still not announced the links between the accused & the 7/7 bombers even though photographic evidence was leaked to the daily newspapers showing members of this gang with two of the future suicide bombers.

The court case, the BBC reports, is based mainly around the evidence of so-called supergrass (informant) Mohammed Junaid Babar, who was found guilty of terrorist offences in the USA. The defence described him as a "liar and a fantasist." The BBC also report that the potential targets for the case included the Bluewater shopping centre in Greenhithe, Kent, the Ministry of Sound nightclub in London and London synagogues.