Iranian Man Arrested For Concealed Weapons Near Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Was Brought to U.S. as Refugee
An Iranian national was arrested last Friday four miles from President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, just days after Iran shot missiles at military bases in Iraq used to house American soldiers following the U.S. airstrike that killed the head of the Iranian Quds Force Qassem Soleimani.
What started as a welfare check on someone sleeping in a gazebo at Bradley Park near Flagler Memorial Bridge, resulted in the arrest of Masoud Yarieilzoleh. When police arrived, they met with 38-year-old Masoud Yarieilzoleh, who stood up from the bench revealing a 17-inch-long machete under the mat where he was lying. Officers spotted an additional knife where Yarieilzoleh was sitting when they first arrived at the scene. The man allowed police to search his belongings, which produced another knife, an ax, and two white envelopes each containing $10,000 in one hundred dollar bills — a total of $22,028.23.
Yarieilzoleh, who formerly went by the name Masoud Yareioeill Zoleh, was charged with carrying a concealed weapon. He did not have a criminal record and was released late Friday, and has a scheduled court appearance on January 29.
Yarieilzoleh had a drivers license issued from the state of Washington and a U.S. permanent resident card. A business named A Masoud Services, Inc, which was dissolved on January 3, was registered in Washington at his Seattle address.
The man’s car was parked in the short term parking lot at Palm Beach International Airport. Court documents show that Yarieilzoleh was given a traffic ticket for $116 for an expired tag, which he paid the following day.
Breitbart News confirmed with officials that Yarieilzoleh arrived in the United States in 2014 as a refugee. In 2016, he was awarded permanent residence by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Over 25,000 Iranians have resettled in the United States under the Obama administration between 2009 and 2016, even though Iran was named a state sponsor of terrorism by the State Department in 1984.