Garden Grove man, who served time for terrorism, now accused of drug trafficking

Drug trafficking charges have been leveled against a Garden Grove man previously convicted of leading a terrorist organization that planned attacks on military installations and synagogues in Los Angeles, officials said Wednesday, July 26.

Ahmed Binyamin Alasiri, also known as Kevin Lamar James, 44, of Garden Grove, was arrested Friday, Aug. 21 and indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury on suspicion of two felony counts of distribution of methamphetamine. The defendant allegedly sold a total of two pounds of high-grade methamphetamine for $7,400 to his housemate, an undercover FBI employee, on July 24 and Aug. 6, according to court documents.

“I have connections to every single drug you can imagine,” Alasiri said while riding in a car with the undercover FBI employee on June 11, 2020, according to court documents.

He faces between 10 years to life in prison if convicted. Alasiri made his first appearance in court on Monday, and is scheduled to appear at an arraignment hearing Sept. 14.

Alasiri was on supervised release after being sentenced in 2009 to 16 years in federal prison. He had pleaded guilty  in December 2007 to one count of conspiracy to levy war against the United States. He founded Jami’yyat Ul-Islam Is-Shaheeh (JIS), a group that planned to attack “enemies of Islam or ‘infidels,’” according to court documents.

The radical organization conducted research and made plans to attack military bases and recruitment centers, synagogues, the Israeli consulate and other targets in Los Angeles, according to court documents. Members of the group robbed 10 gas stations in Orange, Fullerton, Torrance, Bellflower, Pico Rivera, Playa Vista, Walnut and Los Angeles between May 30, 2005 and July 5, 2005.