BUSTED!

Told Border Patrol he was coming into US to pick up his wife at the Target in Bellingham

The Target Store was closed

From Eric Dondero:

This one may go down on some future Crime show series as Stupid Terrorist blunders. Hamid Malekpour, alias Oliver King, an Iranian citizen living in Canada, was busted last week trying to cross the border into Washington State.

Used the old "my Passport went through the washing machine" line

Yamhill Valley Register, May 28:

He told Customs and Border Protection officers he was entering to pick up his wife at a Target store at a mall in nearby Bellingham. However, agents have determined the store actually closed prior to King’s arrival at the border.

He presented a Canadian passport that had just been issued that morning. When questioned, he said his old passport had gone through the washing machine.

Suspicious about King’s Target and passport stories, ICE agents began tailing him when he crossed the border. They quickly determined he had lied about going to the mall, because he drove past without stopping or picking anyone up...

A self-proclaimed "Modeling Agency executive"

Adding even more suspicions Malekpour's papers listed him as an executive from Vancouver with a "Modeling Agency." More descriptions of the bust:

Agents started tailing King — the name on the passport he used both for recent visits to Iran and last week’s border crossing — in Blaine, Wash. They followed him to the McMinnville gun shop, where he is listed on the lease, and watched him load several boxes of high-powered firearms and ammunition there last Wednesday morning.

They then followed him back north to a storage facility in Ferndale, where they took him into custody.

Local sheriff; he clearly wasn't on a hunting trip

Malekpour had a literal arsenal of weapons. Continuing:

Confronted there by agents, King initially agreed to let them search his vehicle. That search turned up two shotguns, two semiautomatic handguns and about 480 rounds of .50-caliber ammunition... agents obtained a warrant to search a storage unit he was renting at the facility. In it, they found a .50-caliber sniper rifle, two .308-caliber sniper rifles, three .300-caliber sniper rifles, eight law enforcement style .223-caliber rifles, three Glock semi-automatic handguns, 100 .223-caliber magazines, 3,800 rounds of .223-caliber ammunition, various high-powered scopes and other equipment.

Local Sheriff Jack Crabtree (photo) comments:

“Have you ever seen a .50-caliber round?” he asked. “That’s a big round — the stuff you shoot at airplanes and tanks.

This story has received no national media attention; only limited coverage in the Seattle media.