Brother of San Bernardino Shooter, Others Arrested

Syed Raheel Farook, 2 Russian women charged with marriage fraud
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 28, 2016 12:31 PM CDT
Brother of San Bernardino Shooter, Others Arrested
Members of the media and onloookers stand across the street from the home of Syed Raheel Farook as FBI investigators execute a search warrant at the home in February. Raheel Farook was arrested and charged with marriage fraud on Thursday.   (Stan Lim /The Press-Enterprise via AP)

Syed Raheel Farook—older brother of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook—was arrested, along with his wife and her sister, Thursday in California, the Washington Post reports. The trio have been charged with marriage fraud and lying under oath. None of the charges are connected to the December shooting that left 14 people dead, but they do stem from the investigation into that attack. According to the Los Angeles Times, Raheel Farook's marriage to wife Tatiana was under suspicion after the shooters' neighbor, Enrique Marquez, was accused of receiving money to be married to her sister, Mariya Chernykh. Marquez allegedly admitted to being paid $200 a month to be married to Chernykh, with whom he didn't live, the Press-Enterprise reports.

The sisters are from Russia, and officials claim their marriages were arranged in order to gain immigration benefits. Prior to Thursday, Marquez was the only person with any connection to the San Bernardino shooting who had been arrested. He was charged with buying the assault rifles used by his neighbors, Rizwan Farook and wife Tashfeen Malik. The arrests of Raheel Farook and the two women took place when FBI agents served search warrants on homes in the California cities of Corona and Ontario. Raheel Farook is a decorated Navy veteran. (More San Bernardino shooting stories.)

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