W. Philly Imam Gets 8 Years For Selling Guns
Charles Johnson
Fri Mar 2, 2007 at 9:09 am PST • Views: 172
As reported last week at LGF, a mosque in West Philadelphia is up in arms about plans to move a liquor store to their area (even though there are already lots of places to buy liquor, on the same block with the mosque).
Meanwhile, the imam of a nearby mosque has been sentenced to eight years, for selling arms.
A West Philadelphia imam was sentenced yesterday to eight years and four months in a federal slammer for selling handguns and assault rifles without a license to an FBI informant who he thought was a drug dealer.
U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Savage ordered Wayne Hogue, 48, also known as “Imam Wadir,” to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on April 30. Hogue is an imam of the 52nd Street Mosque in West Philadelphia, prosecutors said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Zaleski said the government was satisfied with the sentence, which was within the sentencing-guideline range of 97 to 121 months. Hogue’s attorney, Paul J. Hetznecker, said he respected Savage’s decision. “I was hoping for a shorter period of incarceration, but the judge recognized that there were some significant mitigating factors.”
Pleading his case before Savage, Hogue ranted against federal investigators, who he said had engaged in “unethical behavior.”
“I was hoodwinked, bamboozled and led amok,” Hogue said, referring to the informant, who he said had “seduced” him.
Frank says: