According to the DOJ and court documents obtained by CNN Joseph Mahmoud Dibee (53), recruited and led groups environmental extremists to design fires against commercial and government-owned animal processing plants in California and Oregon.
In an announcement of Dibee’s plea, a representative of the agency described Dibee as an “environmental extremeist, arsonist, former fugitive”
According to a DOJ news release in 2001, Dibee and his accomplices used “incendiary device” to demolish an Oregon commercial slaughterhouse. According to the DOJ’s 2001 report, Dibee, along with others, “attempted” to destroy a California wild horse corral that was owned by the government.
According to the DOJ news release, “The conspirators (collectively known as “the family”) were ultimately connected to more than 40 crimes between 1995 and 2001 and caused over $45 million of damages.”
According to the DOJ Dibee fled America in 2005 and was arrested in Cuba on an Interpol Red Notice in 2018.
CNN reported that Dibee was indicted by an Oregon federal grand jury.
According to the release, the DOJ provided assistance to multiple federal agencies in the effort of returning Dibee to the US.
According to the DOJ, Dibee will be sentenced to 87 months in federal jail. The DOJ said that Dibee will be sentenced July 27.
According to the release the case is being prosecuted by the US Attorneys Offices for the District of Oregon and Northern District of California as well as the Western District of Washington’s Counterterrorism Section of the National Security Division.