PEORIA, Ill. – A former Peoria County Sheriff recalls West Peoria’s connection to the aftermath of the September 11th attacks.
Mike McCoy was a Chief Deputy in the department at the time that Ali Saleh Lahlah al-Marri was arrested on a traffic stop by Peoria Police in December of 2001.
It was eventually learned that U.S. Marshals had designated al-Marri as an enemy combatant, with McCoy telling WMBD’s “The Phil Luciano Show” that it created some challenges at the jail.
“We went by all the U.S. Marshal guidelines,” McCoy said. “He was in a solitary cell with one bunk, one stool, and a sink, and that was it.”
McCoy says al-Marri was not allowed television, radio, newspapers, or contact out of the jail. Phone calls had to be once a week, and were monitored and translated. He says there were even difficulties transporting al-Marri to jail and back.
McCoy says the allegations against al-Marri were eventually learned, which he says include al-Marri being a sleeper agent and on the financial side of the terrorist organization, Al Qaeda. There were accusations that al-Marri was involved in a similar September 11th plot attacking Los Angeles.
Federal prosecutors say al-Marri attended various terrorist training camps from 1998-2001, where he learned the use of weapons and operational security tradecraft. Al-Marri was told by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to enter the United States, no later than September 10th, 2001. Mohammed and al-Marri communicated in code that was used by other Al Qaeda members.
“We had conversations with the Marshals, and they had him pegged for a lot of things. He was not just a nobody, he was a somebody,” McCoy said.
Although al-Marri was the only person arrested in West Peoria, McCoy says he believes to this day that he did not act alone. But McCoy says no connections to confirm that were ever made.
Al-Marri pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to Al Qaeda in 2009. He was sentenced to more than eight years in prison that October.
