A fugitive sought for more than a decade and accused of taking part in a string of eco-sabotage attacks across the West is in custody in Portland and pleaded not guilty Friday to helping burn down an Oregon meatpacking plant in the 1990s.
Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 50, was detained as he was about to board a plane in Cuba bound for Russia.
Federal authorities had learned he was traveling through Central America on his way to Russia with the planned stop in Cuba. The FBI arranged for Cuban authorities to detain Dibee and return him to the United States Thursday.
Federal agents booked Dibee into the Multnomah County Detention Center at 4:53 p.m. Thursday.
Dibee was indicted in 2006 in Oregon on charges of arson, conspiracy to commit arson and destruction of an energy facility. He also faces arson charges and possession of a destructive device in federal court in Washington and California.
Dibee, wearing blue jail garb, pleaded not guilty to three counts of a 65-count indictment in U.S. District Court in Portland during his first court appearance. He told Magistrate Judge John V. Acosta that he understood his rights and said nothing more.
He's accused of helping destroy a meatpacking plant called Cavel West Inc. in Redmond on July 1, 1997. Those involved wore dark clothing, masks and gloves. Dibee drilled holes and poured flammable gel into holes around the property, prosecutors said. One of three explosive devices ignited prematurely. The arson caused $1.2 million in damage.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Barrow said Dibee fled in 2005 and traveled to Mexico, Lebanon, Russia, Syria, Ecuador and El Salvador. Dibee holds passports from Syria and Russia, Barrow said.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Bryan Francesconi said Dibee has no income and no assets. He was ordered to remain in custody. A tentative trial was set for two weeks in October in federal court in Eugene.
In 2008, Dibee was believed to have been living in Syria with family members and federal officials announced a $50,000 reward for his arrest.
He helped set a string of arson fires between 1996 and 2001 that were carried out by self-proclaimed members of the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, the government alleges.
Federal investigators said Dibee was part of what they called "The Family,'' describing it as a terrorist cell of about 20 people who committed crimes in the name of the two groups.
By the time it disbanded in 2001, the cell was responsible for at least 25 criminal acts totaling about $48 million in damages, including the 1998 torching of a ski resort in Vail, Colorado. Along with arson, their crimes ranged from vandalism, property damage and animal releases, prosecutors said.
Dibee went by the nicknames "Seattle,'' "Steve'' and "God,'' according to an FBI wanted flier.
On the first day of their 2005 Operation Backfire, FBI agents made contact with Dibee at his home in Seattle, where he worked as a computer software tester at Microsoft, but they lacked evidence to arrest him then. Four days later, according to a federal indictment, Dibee vanished.
"Dibee will now, as many of his co-conspirators have before, face the consequences of his actions,'' Oregon's U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams said. "Using violent means to express one's views will never be tolerated nor forgotten. We will bring every last person responsible for these crimes to justice.''
Williams declined to speak specifically about the help U.S. authorities received from Cuba in tracking Dibee down, but he generally thanked international partners.
An age-progressed photo of Josephine Sunshine Overaker released by the FBI.
One other woman in The Family is still being sought, Josephine Overaker, who officials said has been on the run since 2001. She's wanted in connection with the Vail resort fire.
She's believed to be either 43 or 46 years old, and at one time used the name of deceased baby, according to the FBI. She may have fled to Europe in late 2001 and has a tattoo of a bird on her back, according to federal officials. The FBI continues to offer a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to her arrest.
In 2014, another member of the group, Rebecca Rubin, was sentenced to five years in prison.
Rubin, of Canada, had pleaded guilty to arson, attempted arson and conspiracy to commit arson in Oregon, Colorado and California as part of the underground Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front. She participated in four crimes, including planning the eventual $12 million fire that destroyed the Vail ski resort under construction.
She turned herself in to the FBI at the Washington-Canada border in late 2012, driven to the meeting by her mother.
-- Maxine Bernstein
mbernstein@oregonian.com
503-221-8212
@maxoregonian