Abdel Nur, a Guyanese man who had pleaded guilty in the 2006 plot to blow up New York’s John F Kennedy Airport was deported here on Thursday on the completion of his sentence.
Just prior to his trial, Nur had pleaded guilty in June of 2010 to one count of providing support to terrorists. He was sentenced on January 13, 2011 to 15 years in prison.
He was sentenced by US District Judge Dora Irizarry in Brooklyn, New York. In her sentencing, she had said “This plot was intended to cause great economic harm to the United States and to cause death and serious physical injury to countless people”.
When he pleaded guilty Nur, who had handed himself over to police in Trinidad following an arrest warrant, said he had travelled to the twin island republic to provide protection and introductions to assist in the bomb plot. He said he knew the goal of the plot was to hurt the United States economically. He “became embroiled in a series of events where he could agree to provide the material support,” his lawyer had told the media after Nur’s guilty plea.
“Abdel Nur, while guilty of the charge, did not of himself represent a threat to America,” the lawyer had said.
The plot was hatched by Russell Defreitas – another Guyanese who is a US citizen – in 2006, and was designed to blow up fuel lines and tanks and, ultimately, “the whole of Kennedy,” Defreitas said in a taped conversation. The airport, the largest in the New York area, is located in the borough of Queens.
Defreitas was sentenced to life imprisonment on February 17, 2011 by Judge Irizarry, who before sentencing him said his own words proved him to be dangerous.
Former PNCR parliamentarian Abdul Kadir was sentenced on December 15, 2010 to life in prison for his role in the plot. He died in prison on June 28, 2018. He was 66, according to his prison records.
Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim, who was charged and convicted in the same plot and was sentenced to life, died in a US prison in 2016 at the age of 70.
A statement from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Friday on his deportation said that Compton Eversley, aka Abdel Nur, 70, was admitted to the U.S. by immigration officials at the port of entry in Niagara Falls, New York, as a nonimmigrant visitor in March 1988. He was authorized to remain for up to six months but failed to leave in accordance with the terms of his admission.
On Oct. 24, 1988, ICE said that the 17th Circuit Court of Broward County, Florida, convicted Eversley of possession of cocaine and cannabis. He was sentenced to 60 days confinement. That December, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office (BCS) transferred Eversley to the custody of the then Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), for overstaying his lawful entry. On Jan. 30, 1989, an immigration judge in Miami issued him a final order of removal and in March 1989 Eversley was deported to Guyana.
In January 2006, ICE said that an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force began probing an international plot to attack JFK International Airport. The investigation showed that Eversley and his co-conspirators conspired to bomb fuel tanks, airport hangers, airplanes, fuel lines and a flight control tower at JFK.
“The FBI determined Eversley played a substantial role in the plot to attack the facility. He engaged in numerous meetings with other members of the conspiracy and agreed to serve as a liaison with obtaining the support of several known terrorist organizations with executing the scheme”, ICE said.
On June 1, 2007, ICE said that the East District of New York issued an arrest warrant for Eversley and three days later the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service arrested him in Port of Spain, and held him in custody pending extradition to the United States. On June 24, 2008, the FBI extradited him from Trinidad to the United States via San Juan, Puerto Rico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection paroled Eversley into the United States to face criminal prosecution.
On April 24, 2020, following completion of his sentence, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons transferred Eversley to Philadelphia where he was served a Notice and Order of Expedited Removal.
ICE officers released Eversley to Guyanese officials in Georgetown, Guyana, Dec. 10, without incident.
