Jury convicts two Moorish militiamen for role in Rte. 128 armed standoff in 2021

A Middlesex Superior Court jury this week convicted two participants in an armed standoff that lasted 8 1/2 hours on the side of Rte. 128 in Wakefield on gun charges.

The two were part of a July 3, 2021 convoy of Moorish militia men on their way from Rhode Island to Maine with large-capacity rifles and ammunition. They had pulled over to the site of the road to refill their vehicles with gas from jugs they also had, because they did not trust gas stations, when a Massachusetts state trooper pulled over to investigate.

Jamhal Talib Abdullah Bey, also known as Jamhal Latimer, was convicted on charges of illegal possession of a large-capacity firearm, illegal possession of a large-capacity feeding devices, illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of a shotgun or rifle, improper storage of a rifle or shotgun near a minor, using or wearing body armor during a felony and illegal possession of ammunition, according to the DA's office.

Lucha El Por Libertad, also known as Steven Anthony, Perez was convicted of illegal possession of a firearm and using or wearing body armor during a felony, the DA's office reports. Eight other men and one teen were also arrested.

The pair are scheduled for sentencing on July 16.

According to the DA's office:

Police learned that the defendants did not have drivers’ licenses or registrations for the vehicles they were driving or licenses for the firearms they were brandishing. When officers asked the defendants to put their weapons down, they refused, resulting in an eight-and-a-half hour long standoff. Eventually, after speaking with Massachusetts State Police crisis negotiators, the defendants surrendered and were arrested. Following their arrest, police seized three large capacity AR-style rifles from the defendants’ vehicles, a bolt-action rifle, a semi-automatic shotgun, two “drum” large capacity magazines capable of holding fifty rounds or more, dozens of thirty-plus round large capacity magazines and three semi-automatic pistols along with hundreds of rounds of ammunition in varying calibers.

Following their arrests, several of the participants and their followers filed a number of suits in federal court to try to get the charges dismissed. All basically alleged they should not have been charged in part because they have a Second Amendment right to bear whatever arms they want, in part because they are independent Moors, not subject to stupid Massachusetts gun laws, but instead free to travel about the country under a 1786 treaty between the nascent US and the kingdom of Morocco.

In one ruling, a federal judge dismissed Lucha El Por Libertad's suit, in which he claimed that as "a Moor American National of the Free National Government of Morocco," he is not subject to the laws of what some would call "states." The judge said even if he were actually a foreigner, state laws still apply to him. The judge also rejected his argument that he'd been slandered and libeled by being called a ""black sovereign citizen," since he is not Black and he is not a "sovereign citizen" because only he and his fellow Moors are the only true "sovereigns" in what is now referred to as the US and that they are not citizens of the US.

In another case, a woman who drove up from Arkansas to support the men arrested on 128 only to get arrested herself for the trunkload of weaponry troopers found before they had her car towed for parking illegally, sued the state for the $70 million in damages she said had been done to her. A federal judge dismissed that case after she neither paid a required filing fee nor provided proof she was poor enough to have the fee waived.

. None of their cases succeeded.