DETROIT— Three members of a Warrendale area drug ring were convicted in federal court this week after a six week trial before U.S. District Judge Stephen Murphy that led to a nine-day deliberation from a grand jury.

Two of the men, who were arrested last year, are brothers. Mohamed “Mojo” Faraj, 31, and  Foaud “Fred” Faraj, 44, will face sentencing on May 1. They were both convicted for continuing criminal enterprise and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. 

A third brother, Abed Faraj, 40, was also arrested last year and was charged for his alleged connection to the drug ring, but was acquitted of those charges. 

A fourth man involved in the ring, Mohamed Ayoub, 32, was convicted alongside the two Faraj brothers, on one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances. He was acquitted on a second charge of using a firearm and furtherance of narcotics trafficking, which will most likely pan out to a sentencing of under five years. 

The ring had been operating in the Detroit neighborhood between 2009-2013 on Rutherford Street, before expanding into other areas in the Warrendale neighborhood. 

Several other local Arab American men from the Detroit-Dearborn-Dearborn Heights area were arrested and charged last year for their involvement in the drug ring.

Mohamed Abdul Alhakami, 23,  Ali Al-Hisnawi, 22, Adnan Bazzi, 28, and Zaidon Al-Beheia, 26, also involved in the operation. All of them pled guilty early on, with some taking a plea bargain to testify as witnesses in exchange for reduced charges. 

According to court documents, minors had played a great role in the operation of the ring. Leaders of the ring classified the minors as “street captains”— assisting in delivering small quantities of marijuana in the area between Greenfield and Evergreen Roads. 

Bazzi was believed to have been an enabler in distributing and selling pharmaceutical drugs during his involvement with the drug ring. Authorities found Vicodin, Xanax, and Soma, along with the marijuana, in numerous homes and stash spots affiliated with the men. 

At least one of the minors and several other men involved in the ring who had not been charged, testified in court as witnesses. As part of an agreement with prosecutors, those witnesses wouldn’t be held liable or indicted for their involvement if they were to provide testimony. 

Among the revelations in court were that some of the minors were provided firearms and assisted in acts of arson by burning down homes to use as stashing spots for drugs. Alhakami allegedly began his stint with the drug ring before he turned 18.

Leaders of the drug ring would often intimidate and threaten some of the younger males involved in the operation. One individual who was suspected of  being a “rat” for communicating with authorities, allegedly had both of his arms broken with a two-by-four board.  

The drug ring served as a hot commodity for marijuana and prescription pill accessibility to teenagers and young adults from Dearborn and Dearborn Heights. Customers would often cross over into the Warrendale area to pick up the narcotics.  

In 2012-2013, Dearborn Police caught wind of the drug trafficking trend when they would catch motorists in possession of narcotics after they exited the Warrendale area and entered Dearborn. 

Dearborn Attorney Brian T. Berry, who represented Ayoub in federal court, told The Arab American News that his client was “guilty by association” and played a minimal role in the operation. Berry plans to counter the conviction with an appeal. 

“Mohamed Ayoub was somebody who was indicted for his association and his friendship with certain people and not necessarily for involvement,” Berry said. “The search of his house didn’t reveal any quantity of marijuana to be used for distribution nor did it include any of the items that are generally used for packaging or distributing.”

Berry said he believes a case of this nature should never have fallen into the lap of the federal court, noting that drug rings of a larger magnitude that involve various types of narcotics, only usually land in the federal system. 

“The government brought forward a very weak case,” Berry noted. “It should’ve been a state case because the majority of the operation was small quantities of Marijuana.”

According to U.S. Attorney Barbra McQuade, a coalition of law enforcement agencies had collaborated to take down the operation as part of the Detroit One Initiative, implemented last year to reduce homicide and drug crimes in the city.

“This group caused significant damage to the Warrendale community, exploiting teenage boys to do their dirty work on the street as drug runners and burning homes to use as stash houses,” McQuade said in a statement.