Officials: Ex-NYC Teacher Attempted To Send Weapons To Terror Groups

Terrorist sting nets city teach - http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/terrorist_sting_nets_city_teach_LiLmMuqtKkTgQ9eqz02PVJ#ixzz0zgQXqd5i He's graduated to gun running.
A former Stuyvesant HS teacher was busted last night for selling high-powered weapons to undercover operatives he thought were connected to Middle East terror organizations, The Post has learned.
Theophilus Burroughs wet his pants when he was slapped with cuffs at a Bronx warehouse, where he was arrested in a sting operation, law-enforcement sources said. The seats on a van waiting to transport him to the 49th Precinct had to be lined with plastic.

The arrest caps a yearlong investigation that saw Burroughs allegedly negotiate the sale of firearms -- including AK-47s, assault rifles with scopes and .40-caliber guns -- during "deals" with informants in which he praised Hamas and Hezbollah and suggested killing cops and Jews, sources said.

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"There's no good money in teaching," Burroughs once griped.
Burroughs, 49, a former Marine from Newark, was on unpaid medical leave from the Department of Education.
He showed up at the Westchester Square warehouse expecting to collect a cool $10,000 for a pair of night-vision goggles, two bulletproof vests and 200,000 counterfeit cigarette stamps, a source said.
Burroughs was instead hauled away by city and state tax agents, and investigators from the Bronx DA's Office.
He faces a slew of charges, including weapons possession and forgery, the source said.
Burroughs began his teaching career as a sub in 1992, and taught music at Stuyvesant in 2002 and 2003.
He went on unpaid medical leave from a Brooklyn high school in September 2009 -- around the time he first went to the Bronx warehouse, where he allegedly bought hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of untaxed cigarettes from informants, sources said.
But he soon set his sights on a more deadly deal, allegedly proposing firearm sales on his third visit.

He later referred to Hamas as "my people" and declared, "Hezbollah good, Hezbollah strong," a source said.

On another occasion, the informants gave him a Koran and said they wanted to do "something big." He suggested they blow up a police station, a police car or the Jewish Community Center on Amsterdam Avenue at West 76th Street, the source said.

Burroughs even brought the informants to South Carolina on multiple occasions to meet his gun connections and handle the exchanges, sources said.
Following one deal, Burroughs told an informant, "This gun has a body on it" -- and instructed the informant to scratch off the serial number, a source said.
He also allegedly boasted he knew how to mix gunpowder for a grenade and said he could secure fertilizer used in bomb-making.
Aside from criminal charges, Burroughs is also under investigation by the Department of Education for a February 2009 incident of alleged misconduct at the Cobble Hill School for American Studies. Administrators are taking steps to fire him, said a spokeswoman.
Additional reporting by Larry Celona

Teach's 'rubber' bullets ~ Booted before gun rap

The former Stuyvesant HS teacher charged with arms trafficking spent more than a year in a "rubber room" for bad behavior -- but somehow bounced back to become dean of a Brooklyn high school, The Post has learned.
Theophilus Burroughs, who is being held without bail after pleading not guilty to an 84-count indictment yesterday, began the first of two disciplinary stints in September 2007 for reasons the Department of Education could not explain.
"He didn't mix with fellow roomers," a source said of Burroughs, 49.
Once freed, Burroughs landed a job as dean of the Cobble Hill School for American Studies, "where he did not make friends," the source said.

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In February 2009, Burroughs was once again shipped off to a rubber room, this time for using "vulgar language" with a student, a department spokeswoman said.
He went on unpaid leave in September, but it took administrators another nine months to bring official charges and moved to give him the ax.
By then, he was allegedly a full-blown arms dealer.
"He expressed his desire for the weapons to be shipped to agents in Hamas," ADA Graham Van Epps said told a Bronx judge, citing Burrough's belief guns he sold to informants were being sent to Middle East terrorist groups.
Burroughs was first caught up in the DA's sting operation Aug. 17, 2009, looking to buy untaxed cigarettes at a warehouse run by city and state tax agents, according to an indictment unsealed yesterday.
About five weeks later -- on his eighth visit -- Burroughs offered two guns for sale. On Oct. 20, he sold a semiautomatic Walther P99 pistol to confidential informants and was given an $800 credit toward cigarettes, court papers said.
Between that day and May 19, Burroughs arranged the sale of a dozen weapons -- including two Norinco SKS assault rifles, an AK-47 assault rifle, one Hi Point .45-caliber pistol, two Smith and Wesson pistols and two magazine rounds, the documents claim.
On March 10, Burroughs gave "a price list for firearms that [he] could obtain" and, on June 16, he "received approximately $1,500 as a down payment for a future sale of firearms," court papers state.
Aside from gunrunning, Burroughs purchased more than $1 million worth of untaxed cigarettes during 61 visits to the warehouse between Aug. 17, 2009, and July 20, court documents show.
Burroughs faces up to 25 years in jail if found guilty of firearm sales, tax evasion, conspiracy and money laundering.
Burrough's lawyer, Michael D'Ambrosio, insisted, "Most of the rhetoric used in court was meant to inflame."Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/brooklyn/teach_rubber_bullets_sqZc1capo0mmrfeZgedSnK?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=#ixzz0znTDsEaO

Ex-NYC Teacher Attempted To Send Weapons To Terror Groups -  http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/terrorist_sting_nets_city_teach_LiLmMuqtKkTgQ9eqz02PVJ#ixzz0znRkKuO6

NEW YORK (WPIX) —

A former teacher at the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan is being held Wednesday on charges he tried to send assault weapons to terror groups in the Mideast. Investigators say he also talked about killing cops and Jews.

Theophilus Burroughs, 49, pleaded not guilty in Bronx Supreme Court to a multiple-count indictment Wednesday, officials said.

According to prosecutors, they have video and audio surveillance showing him inside a Bronx warehouse, trying to negotiate the sale of weapons to confidential informants who were working with state investigators.

One investigator who worked on the case told PIX 11 News Burroughs talked about throwing hand grenades into a Jewish Center at 74th Street and Amsterdam Avenue, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He also was caught talking about bombing a police precinct and of his support for the terror group, Hamas.

In court, Bronx prosecutors told the judge Burroughs "was under the impression the weapons were being shipped, by container, to numerous groups in the Middle East."

Prosecutors said he had a weapons supplier in South Carolina and also dealt in untaxed cigarettes. In the past, PIX 11 has reported extensively on investigations into cigarette smuggling and its connection to the funding of terrorism.

Burroughs was busted in the Bronx warehouse Tuesday night, at 2605 Halperin Avenue. Investigators say he was expecting to collect thousands of dollars for providing counterfeit cigarette stamps, night-vision goggles and bulletproof vests.

His court-appointed lawyer called the charges "trumped up."

"If this was really such a big case, we wouldn't be in state court, we'd be in federal court," attorney Michael D'Ambrosio told reporters.

Burroughs was on medical leave from the NYC Department of Education since last year. Back in 2002 and 2003, he was a music teacher at Stuyvesant High School. He currenlty lives in Newark, New Jersey and his house was raided by investigators who say they found weapons, narcotics, and thousands of dollars in cash.

More than a dozen more people have been arrested in the case. Burroughs is being held without bail. Long-time residents on Halperin Avenue, where the warehouse is located, call the arrests "disturbing"--and most said they never noticed any activity at the brick building with the brown, garage door.