Liberian Second Civil War Arrest Dragon Master
Laye Sekou Camara, aka “General Dragon Grasp,” accused of committing functions of brutality in the Next Liberian Civil War, has been charged with employing a fraudulently acquired immigration document in Pennsylvania. Above, a photo allegedly shows a Liberian rebel team which includes Camara, remaining, celebrating in the vicinity of Monrovia, Liberia, on August 5, 2003.
GEORGES GOBET/AFP/Getty

A man accused of committing atrocities in the course of the Next Liberian Civil War, when he was recognised as “Common Dragon Grasp,” has been arrested by federal authorities in Pennsylvania.

Laye Sekou Camara was billed with working with a fraudulently acquired immigration document, according to a felony grievance filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania past 7 days. Whilst implementing for a non-immigrant visa in 2011, Camara allegedly claimed he experienced “by no means been a member of or included with a paramilitary unit, vigilante unit, rebel group, guerrilla team or insurgent firm.”

Nevertheless, according to an affidavit from a Division of Homeland Protection (DHS) investigator incorporated in the grievance, Camara was a main member of the rebel team Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, or LURD, which has been accused of committing atrocities, together with the massacre of civilians, through the 1999-2003 war in Liberia.

“In truth, he was a high-position member of the LURD rebel group in the course of Liberia’s Second Civil War,” the investigator stated of Camara, according to a duplicate of the complaint presented to Newsweek by Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the Method on Extremism at George Washington University.

The complaint cites a 2004 Condition Department report that asserts Camara was also recognised as “Sekou KAMARA” and “K1,” in addition to “Dragon Learn.” At the time, Camara was “in hiding right after he allegedly killed a fellow LURD Standard identified as Black Marine,” in accordance to the report.

Soon after allegedly falsely obtaining a visa to enter the country, Camara afterwards obtained a environmentally friendly card on the exact pretenses, which he went on to use on an software to Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation in 2017. Camara experienced been living in southwest Philadelphia prior to his arrest, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Pennsylvania’s Workplace of Legal professional General, DHS, and other federal organizations released an investigation into Camara in July of previous year. He was not the 1st alleged previous Liberian war legal to be investigated on immigration fraud prices.

In 2017, Mohammed Jabbateh, also identified as “Jungle Jabbateh,” was convicted on rates of falsely obtaining immigration paperwork. He was a infamous warlord accused of atrocities dedicated through the Initial Liberian Civil War. Jabbateh, who had also been living in Pennsylvania, was later on sentenced to 30 many years in jail.

Liberia’s Initial Civil War, from 1989 to 1997, still left hundreds of countless numbers dead, including a large range of civilians. Forces led by Charles Taylor executed the former Liberian President Samuel Doe in 1990, right before going to battle for manage of the state in a struggle with several other rebel groups. The war ended when Taylor was elected Liberian president in 1997.

Rebel teams waging the 2nd Civil War hoped to get rid of Taylor, who resigned from business in August 2003 just ahead of a peace settlement ended the war. Taylor was later on convicted in intercontinental prison court of a number of war crimes and sentenced to 50 yrs in jail.

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