‘General Dragon Master’ of Liberian Civil War Arrested in U.S.

A male accused of committing atrocities during the Second Liberian Civil War, when he was acknowledged as “Typical Dragon Grasp,” has been arrested by federal authorities in Pennsylvania.

Laye Sekou Camara was billed with applying a fraudulently received immigration doc, according to a criminal grievance submitted in the U.S. District Courtroom for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania very last week. Even though implementing for a non-immigrant visa in 2011, Camara allegedly claimed he experienced “hardly ever been a member of or involved with a paramilitary device, vigilante device, rebel team, guerrilla team or insurgent corporation.”

Even so, according to an affidavit from a Section of Homeland Safety (DHS) investigator bundled in the complaint, Camara was a major member of the rebel group Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, which has been accused of committing atrocities, like the massacre of civilians, for the duration of the 1999-2003 war in Liberia.

“In point, he was a large-ranking member of the LURD rebel group throughout Liberia’s Second Civil War,” the investigator stated of Camara, in accordance to a copy of the complaint provided to Newsweek by Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the System on Extremism at George Washington University.

The complaint cites a 2004 Condition Office report that asserts Camara was also recognized as “Sekou KAMARA” and “K1,” in addition to “Dragon Grasp.” At the time, Camara was “in hiding following he allegedly killed a fellow LURD General known as Black Maritime,” in accordance to the report.

After allegedly falsely obtaining a visa to enter the place, Camara later gained a inexperienced card on the exact pretenses, which he went on to use on an application to Pennsylvania’s Division of Transportation in 2017. Camara experienced been living in southwest Philadelphia just before his arrest, in accordance to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Pennsylvania’s Office of Attorney Standard, DHS, and other federal businesses released an investigation into Camara in July of final calendar year. He was not the very first alleged previous Liberian war criminal to be investigated on immigration fraud prices.

In 2017, Mohammed Jabbateh, also recognised as “Jungle Jabbateh,” was convicted on fees of falsely acquiring immigration documents. He was a notorious warlord accused of atrocities dedicated for the duration of the Very first Liberian Civil War. Jabbateh, who experienced also been dwelling in Pennsylvania, was afterwards sentenced to 30 yrs in jail.

Liberia’s 1st Civil War, from 1989 to 1997, remaining hundreds of 1000’s lifeless, such as a huge variety of civilians. Forces led by Charles Taylor executed the previous Liberian President Samuel Doe in 1990, right before likely to wrestle for management of the nation in a struggle with a number of other rebel groups. The war ended when Taylor was elected Liberian president in 1997.

Rebel groups waging the Second Civil War hoped to get rid of Taylor, who resigned from place of work in August 2003 just prior to a peace arrangement ended the war. Taylor was later convicted in international criminal courtroom of multiple war crimes and sentenced to 50 many years in prison.

Newsweek attained out to DHS and the Embassy of Liberia in Washington, D.C., for remark.