He (along with two others from his mosque) is also accused of ties to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and could face a twenty-year reassignment as a prison recruiter. From ABC7Chicago.com:
A leader of a mosque on Chicago’s South Side has been ordered held on charges that he trafficked a chemical used to make the illegal narcotic methamphetamine.
U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve ordered that Tariq Isa, 55, remain in custody Tuesday without bail. She said Isa had an incentive to flee because a conviction would carry a lengthy prison term.
Isa was arrested Thursday as he arrived at O’Hare International Airport from the Middle East, authorities said. A two-count indictment charging Isa with distributing nearly 1.73 million tablets of pseudoephedrine was returned in May but was sealed until his arrest.
According to the indictment, Isa knew or had reasonable cause to believe the chemical would be used to make methamphetamine.
Isa is the third leader of the Mosque of the Martyr Izzedine Al-Qassam to face criminal charges since last year.
Ghassan Zayed Ballut and Hatem Fariz were indicted last year in Florida for allegedly financing terrorists in Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. They were also charged with being members of the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.