Strip Mall Served as Crime Market, Police Say

Late-Night Drug Dealing, Money Laundering, Identity Theft Operations Raided

In the shadow of the soaring Skyline Towers apartment buildings in Fairfax County, the "Build America" strip mall filled with a buzzing melange of African and Middle Eastern markets, restaurants and shops to serve the nearly 10,000 residents near Baileys Crossroads.

But after midnight, Fairfax police and shop owners say, it erupted into an open bazaar of drug dealing, stolen goods, money laundering and identity theft.

Trying to restore calm to the neighborhood, a variety of law enforcement agencies conducted raids early Wednesday, arresting 19 people and charging 18 more with a range of felonies. The raids followed a year-long undercover operation at the two-sided mall at South George Mason Drive and Seminary Road, Lt. Richard Perez said at a news conference yesterday.

There was no real organization or leadership to the criminal activity, Perez said. Instead, the strip mall simply evolved into a hangout for young adults with unruly late-night crowds, attracting complaints from businesses and neighbors beginning last year.

Besides bars and restaurants, which must close at certain hours under alcohol licensing rules, the number of "hookah bars" rose from two to 13 in the mall, Perez said. The hookah bars, in which tobacco is smoked out of water pipes, are not regulated like places serving alcohol and were staying open 24 hours a day, Perez said.

But it wasn't always tobacco being smoked, one restaurant owner said, asking that his name be withheld for fear of reprisal. He said when he opened his restaurant in the mornings, empty plastic baggies that once contained marijuana lined the sidewalk.

Youths were "sitting here for three to four hours a day," taking away parking and intimidating customers, said Tenadam Yilma, owner of Tenadam Market. Someone darted in once and stole Yilma's purse, she said.

Court records show that undercover officers were able to offer cases of untaxed, unlicensed cigarettes to some business owners, who willingly bought and resold them. Fairfax police used this approach last year to break up a large Asian organized-crime ring in the Annandale area.

The Build America investigation led to a second strip mall at 3501 South Jefferson St., court records show. Undercover officers began dealing in stolen credit card numbers at the Babylon Futbol Cafe, and a search warrant affidavit states that police provided Amin Maknassi, 19, with a device to steal the numbers. Maknassi, 19, was arrested Wednesday and charged with four credit theft felonies.

Of the 27 people charged Wednesday, 16 were age 24 or younger, and many were charged with distribution of marijuana. The sale of stolen property was a frequent event, both inside and outside the shops and hookah bars, though rarely to outsiders, said Lt. John Piper of the police organized crime unit.

More than 135 officers and agents were involved in Wednesday's raids, which were applauded by Ahmed Allia, owner of Fairouz Restaurant. "People didn't want to come to my restaurant" because of the lingering crowds, Allia said. "And I have the best food in the area. Seriously."

Ten people were already in jail when the raids occurred, 19 were arrested and eight remain at large, police said.

"We have gotten a lot of interesting characters off the street," said Lt. Col. Suzanne Devlin, head of the police investigations bureau.