Human collateral

last updated 8 January 2015

St. John’s, Antigua

Sniper suspect Lee Malvo’s mother may have given him to co-defendant John Muhammad as collateral to guarantee that she’d pay Muhammad for forged immigration documents, the Antiguan government said this week. Muhammad, 41, and his protégé, Malvo, 17, are charged with the sniping spree that left at least 10 people dead in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. The two met in Antigua, and the government there now says that Muhammad allegedly made $60,000 by selling at least 20 phony documents to people hoping to sneak into the U.S. A task force uncovered evidence that Una James, Malvo’s mother, was one of Muhammad’s clients. The task force reported that Muhammad “held onto Malvo as security” when James couldn’t pay for her documents.