ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The family man from Afghanistan arrested for visa fraud is now suspected of having ties to a terrorist group with access to cash, expensive phones and airline tickets. Chief Investigative Reporter Berkeley Brean found out the feds in Rochester released this information in order to keep Dilbar Dilbar locked up.

The government says this is “not a typical visa fraud case.” The filing by the U.S. attorney prosecuting Dilbar says the U.S. government knew Dilbar was a security risk when he tried to be an interpreter for American soldiers in Afghanistan and they were watching him ever since he and his family arrived in Rochester last year.

Here are the main points:

The government says Dilbar is affiliated with the Haqqani Network, a terrorist group in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was fired as an interpreter in 2009 because he was a “security risk.”

In 2011, His “fingerprints” were on a “handwritten note” at a “crime scene in Afghanistan” that “contained possibly the coordinates of a planned terrorist attack.”

The same year Dilbar was arrested for “impersonating” an Afghan police “criminal investigator.”

The first thing Dilbar did when he arrived in Rochester was apply for a “New York State license to act as a security guard.” That caused “immediate concern” the court filing says.
Dilbar is charged with using forged documents to get his special immigration visa and green card (permanent residency). On May 1, police searched his home on Blossom Road in Rochester. They found $4,000 worth of cell phones and Apple Watches. They found airline tickets and a photo on his phone of a large pile of cash.

In this report, the government says most Afghan citizens who helped Americans in the war on terror were true heroes. “Some were not,” the filing reads. As a result of this information declassified by the federal government, Dilbar’s conditional release was stopped and he is staying in custody.

You learn a lot in the footnotes.
One says Dilbar portrays himself a dedicated family man. The footnote says it took him six days to call his wife from jail and nine days to call another family member. On the other hand, it says he called two unnamed people three times the day he was arrested, a total of nine times in a week. One of them, known as Subject A, traveled to Afghanistan earlier this year.

Dilbar’s attorney did not return our call today. Although in her filing to the court in an effort to get Dilbar released with conditions she wrote Dilbar will “withdraw his NYS security guard application.” Federal public defender Anne Burger wrote that in one year Dilbar works full time and developed “strong ties to the community in the form of his connection to two religious communities: The Islamic Center on Westfall Road and Grace Church,” which is less than 500 feet from Dilbar’s home.

The church that has supported his family in Rochester said it is not commenting. The U.S. Attorney turned down our request for an interview too.

On Wednesday, President Trump signed a proclamation banning Afghans from emigrating to the U.S.

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