Three members of the al-Qaeda terrorist group were stopped and apprehended trying to fly into Dallas while using passports from Colombia. The three entered Colombia via Venezuela. 

The three al-Qaeda members who are from Syria, entered Colombia in  La Guajira, in northeast Colombia. The three men were able to obtain actual passports as they had documentation experts located in the country. The RCN channel was the first to break the story. 

The three Syrian citizens were able to obtain a civil registry, identity card, and passport in a network detected by the Registry and already investigated by the Prosecutor’s Office. The identities of the arrested terrorists have been released. The first is Al Raefee, whose passport says he was born on January 1, 1974, and whose ID number is 1,221,979,790. Although he is supposedly 45 years old, he was assigned an ID number as if he was under 25. 

The second al-Qaeda operative is Tuameh Tuameh, who was born in 1964 and whose ID number is 1,221,979,791. Once again, his ID numbers reflect someone 20 years younger. And, the final one is Al Harari, who, supposedly, was born on April 1, 1971, and his ID number is 1,221,979,792.

With all three having correlative I.D. numbers despite being born years apart, all being born supposedly in Cartagena and all three issuing their passports on the same day in La Guajira, on November 21, 2016, threw red flags at the Colombian authorities. 

The national registrar, Alexander Vega has led the investigation on the three: He is looking into an official in Ciénaga who would have collaborated in the issuance of these false documents. Meanwhile, the investigations are continuing in the Prosecutor’s Office and in Colombia Migration as they look further into this entire organization.

Julio Borges, Presidential Commissioner for Foreign Affairs of the Venezuelan interim government of Juan Guaidó, said on Twitter: “ One more example that Nicolás Maduro has become the greatest protector and promoter of international terrorism. From Venezuela, irregular groups have total impunity to plan criminal operations. It is a real threat to the free world.”

A few days ago, a Conference Against Terrorism in the Hemisphere was held in Colombia, attended by the United States Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and the president of the National Assembly of Venezuela, Juan Guaidó. Guaidó is recognized by several countries in the Western Hemisphere as the rightful president of Venezuela after the re-election of Maduro was deemed invalid.

Authorities in Colombia have condemned Maduro’s regime for destabilizing the region by harboring terrorists from organizations such as al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and even FARC dissidents. Guaido confirmed this information and requested the support of the international community to stop the spread of this danger.

The revelation that these al-Qaeda operatives entered the hemisphere through Venezuela, may just be the tip of the iceberg.