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February 9, 2004
The United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California announced that Mohammed Lateef pled guilty today to mailing an anthrax threat to the federal immigration service in San Francisco.
Mr. Lateef, 32, of San Mateo, was indicted by a federal Grand Jury on August 26, 2003. He was charged with one count of threatening to use a biological agent as a weapon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 175(a). Mr. Lateef pled guilty to the indictment without a plea agreement from the government.
In pleading guilty, Mr. Lateef admitted that on approximately April 10, 2002, he mailed a letter to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now known as the Bureau of Customs and Immigration Enforcement), at 630 Sansome Street in San Francisco.
The letter contained white powder and stated: "Antrax" [sic]; "Hate Isreal and destroy America" [sic]; and "Al-Qaida" [sic]. Upon receiving the letter on April 11, 2002, the immigration service evacuated its mailroom and isolated the employees who had come into contact with the letter, until testing confirmed that the white powder was not, in fact, anthrax.
The sentencing of Mr. Lateef is scheduled for May 17, 2004, before Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel in San Francisco. The maximum statutory penalty for violating 18 U.S.C. § 175(a) is life imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. However, the actual sentence will be dictated by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take into account a number of factors, and will be imposed in the discretion of the Court.
The prosecution is the result of a one-year investigation by Special Agent John Hartman of the U.S. Federal Protective Service, who is currently assigned to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Michael L. Wang is prosecuting the case, with the assistance of Ji-Yon Yi.
A copy of this press release may be found on the U.S. Attorney's Office's website at www.usdoj.gov/usao/can. Related court documents and information may be found on the District Court website at www.cand.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.cand.uscourts/gov.
All press inquiries to the U.S. Attorney's Office should be directed to Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew J. Jacobs at (415) 436-7181.
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