CHICAGO, March 26 (UPI) -- A Chicago taxi driver who allegedly attempted to supply funds overseas for al-Qaida was arrested Friday on federal terrorism charges, authorities said.
Raja Lahrasib Khan, 56, a native of Pakistan who became a U.S. citizen in 1988, was charged with two counts of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a release.
Khan allegedly sent funds to a Sunni extremist group in Pakistan, Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami. Khan has claimed to know the group's leader, Ilyas Kashmiri, for 15 years, federal officials said.
A 35-page complaint affidavit against Khan alleged he learned in 2008 that Kashmiri's group was working with al-Qaida.
It was also alleged Khan discussed attacking a stadium in the United States this summer, but officials said there was no immediate danger.
"While there was no imminent danger in the Chicago area or elsewhere," Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said, "these charges, once again, affirm that law enforcement must remain constantly vigilant to guard against domestic support of foreign terrorist organizations."
