Men held on diamond-smuggling charges in Tucson

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Men held on diamond-smuggling charges in Tucson

By Beth Braverman

February 09, 2007

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Tuscon, Ariz.—After being arrested by federal customs agents in a sting operation at a hotel room in Tucson earlier this week, two men are still in custody, having been charged with smuggling African diamonds into the United States.

Maliki Mohamed Diane, 60, a Sierra Leone native who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen living in New Jersey, appeared at a detention hearing on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Tucson, where a judge ordered him held on a $10,000 cash bond, says Wynn Horbuckle, public affairs director for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tucson. Horbuckle says federal prosecutors have appealed the bond ruling, and Diane remained in custody on Friday.

A detention hearing for Kouyate Saoud, 49, a Guinea national, was postponed until next week, and Saoud remains in federal custody, Horbuckle says.

Authorities say the two men were arrested on Sunday after they attempted to sell smuggled African diamonds to undercover agents from the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency who were posing as gem buyers.

The ICE arrested the men on Feb. 4 after agents executed a search warrant for a room at the Motel 6 on Freeway Road and recovered more than 11,000 carats of rough diamonds as well as a variety of other gemstones.

A slew of industry gem shows were going on in Tucson last week, and a collection of non-jewelry-industry vendors selling everything from costume jewelry to fossils also set up shop in tents and at hotel rooms along Freeway Road.

In a statement issued today, World Diamond Council Chairman Eli Izhakoff applauded the arrest of the men.

"The arrests that took place in Arizona provide great evidence that we are making progress, and that the Kimberley Process is having an impact on stopping the illegal smuggling of diamonds," he said in a statement.

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