AN Antiguan man claimed yesterday that he reported to Antiguan authorities that US sniper suspect, John Allen Muhammad, was running a passport racket in the eastern Caribbean island and had smuggled people into the United States, but no one took his complaint seriously.

“I went to the passport office before the shootings and complained and they didn’t believe,” said Keithly Nedd, who lives in St John’s, the Antiguan capital.

Neither the island’s police commissioner, Truehart Smith, nor senior passport officials were available yesterday to comment on Nedd’s claim about the passport racket and that Muhammad was once arrested at Antigua’s V C Bird International Airport, but released.

Muhammad, who was John Allen Williams before he changed his surname, lived in Antigua sometime between 2000 and possibly up to earlier this year.

But it would have been easy for him to come and go for he acquired an Antiguan passport in July 2000, on the right of citizenship by descent because his mother was ostensibly Antiguan.

In supporting documentation for his June 2000 application, Muhammad produced an Antiguan birth certificate of a woman named for that of Antiguan, Eva Ferris, born in St John’s 12 November, 1929.

“This is a valid certificate,” said Ena Thomas, the head of the passport division of Antigua’s foreign ministry on Friday. “It has the seal of the Registrar General and was extracted on June 6, 2000.”

Muhammad’s own birth certificate, showing that Williams was born in New Orleans on December 31, 1960, also gave his mother’s name as Eva Feris, but spelt with a single “r”. His real mother’s name, Merdie Holiday, was substituted in the document.

The Antiguan birth certificate was real, officials in St John’s say.

There is an Antigua-born woman named Ferris, who lives in Connecticut.

She is the mother of a well-known Antiguan broadcaster, Maxine Allen, and Muriel Allen-Bennett, a teacher at Greensville Primary, where Muhammad’s three children — Salena, John Amah Jr, and Taalibah — attended when they lived in Antigua after he had spirited them out of the United States following the break-up of his second marriage. Eva Ferris has a third child, a son who was born on December 23, 1960, eight days before Muhammad’s birth date.

Eva Ferris’ family in Antigua have hired local lawyer Harold Lovell to protect their interest and he has called for a full investigation by the Antiguan authorities.

“I feel that there is need for the local passport authorities to engage in a serious investigation to determine how this individual could acquire a false passport under false pretence and to determine how this could be prevented in the future,” said Lovell, an Opposition senator.

But Nedd, a motor mechanic and handyman, insisted yesterday that Muhammad was involved in more than this single act of suspected fraud.

The ex-soldier and Gulf War veteran, who is accused of killing 10 people in the Washington area, had ways of getting Antiguan passports, said Nedd.

According to Nedd, he came to know Muhammad because of a relationship he had with a Jamaican woman who shared a house with Muhammad and his children

“I saw him with five (Antigua) passports at one time,” Nedd said. “He must have had his contacts. He would leave the house at midnight and sometime put on a disguise and make his move.”

Nedd also claimed that Muhammad operated a smuggling operation, in some cases using the portion of an airline ticket of a US traveller to send an illegal immigrant to the United States in the visitor’s name.

“He sent people to America with forged US birth papers,” Nedd said.

Muhammad and a 17-year-old Jamaican boy, Lee Boyd Malvo, were arrested in Maryland on Thursday in connection with the sniper killings that terrified the Washington area for three weeks and turned into one of America’s most dramatic manhunts ever.

Nelson and other persons say Muhammad came into contact with Malvo because of an affair he had with Malvo’s mother, Una James, who was living in the community of Villa about four miles from Ottos, where Muhammad lived.

James apparently left Malvo with Muhammad after he arranged for her to travel to the US as part of his immigration racket.

Nedd claimed to have tipped off Antigua police about Muhammad’s activities and that Muhammad was once held at the airport as he prepared to go abroad on a trip.

“They never charged him and they released him the next day,” Nedd said. “When he came back to the house he said he felt like sending the officers two postcards.”

A St John’s taxi driver, who declined to be identified, said he remembered picking up three Jamaicans and taking them to the airport, just outside St John’s, on Muhammad’s behalf.

“He (Muhammad) went to the check-in counter of the airline and filled out some papers and told them to meet him at the departure gate,” the taxi driver said.

Other sources said that a Jamaican, identified only as “Bantan”, who lives in Antigua, was reported to have paid Muhammad US$1,000 for an Antiguan passport, which he failed to deliver. Efforts to track down “Bantan” were unsuccessful.

Agustin Sheppard, a construction worker and part-time farmer, who developed a relationship with Muhammad, said the American spoke about having Antiguan connections and his ability to get passports. They had met in 2000 when both lived in English Harbour, a village in the island’s south-east coast.

“He told me that he had some connections in Antigua and he was going to use Antiguan passports,” said Sheppard.

According to Sheppard, on travels to the United States Muhammad would return with items such as power tools and auto mechanic equipment which he would sell cheaply.

“He was technical and professional,” Sheppard said.

Muhammad, who acquaintances said boasted of his military career, shooting skills and claimed to have worked with the CIA and FBI, at least twice tried to get employment in Antigua.

Once when another of Muhammad’s Antiguan friends, Randy Nelson, asked him about how he survived, Muhammad claimed he trained security officers for a company called Special Security, owned by a former policeman, Wulbur Purcell.

Purcell confirmed that Muhammad came to his office offering to train his workers.

According to Purcell, he was interested, but wanted to see Muhammad’s military documents.

“He seemed to be a guy who could help with some expert security training, but after I told him that I need to see his documents I never saw him again,” Purcell said.

Purcell’s offices are about 200 yards from Muhammad’s former home.

Sometime late last year, Muhammad, according to Nelson, also applied for a job as an athletic coach with the Antigua government’s Sports Department.

“He seemed to be a very athletic person,” said Nelson. “He was very fit. He was always hustling. In the mornings he would run (the kids) around (the neighbourhood). In the evenings he would go to the beach.”

Director of Sports Pat Whyte confirmed that Muhammad made enquiries about a job, but he never returned after he was asked to present his qualifications.

Nelson said initially he was “very shocked” when news broke that Muhammad was responsible for the shootings in Washington, but on reflection he “wasn’t surprised … because of the person he seemed to be and the things he spoke to me about”.

“I probably thought something wasn’t right,” said Nelson. “Maybe he was crazy.”