3 arrested as warrant is served at home of San Bernardino mass shooter's brother

Three people were arrested after warrants were served in two cities including the Corona home Syed Raheel Farook, brother of the San Beardino terror shooter, Syed Rizwan Farook, Thursday moing, including the shooter’s brother and sister-in-law, officials confirmed.

Syed Raheel Farook his wife Tatiana Farook and Mariya Cheykh, the wife of Farook’s friend, Enrique Marquez, were arrested Thursday moing after federal agents served warrants at their homes, officials said.

The arrests are all related to the Dec. 2, 2015 terror shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Beardino that killed 14 people, authorities said. Warrants were served in Ontario and Corona.

“We will and have continued to investigate this matter and will leave no stone untued,” said San Beardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan to the news of the arrests. “We owe this to the victims.”

San Beardino County District Attoey Mike Ramos leaed of the arrests Thursday moing and continued to pledge his department’s support to the federal investigators.

“Any assistance (the U.S. Attoey’s Office) need, we’ll be there for them,” said Ramos adding that everyone and anyone associated with the Dec. 2 attackers should be held accountable.

“We owe it to the victims, their families and this county,” Ramos said.

U.S. Attoey Eileen Decker said her agency would continue to thoroughly investigate everyone involved with the IRC attacks.

“We’ve made a solemn commitment to the people of San Beardino - all those affected by the Dec. 2 (terrorist) acts - that we will tu over every stone to identify those involved or engaged in some form of criminal activity related to the acts of Dec. 2, and the indictments today reflect the work we’ve been doing to honor that commitment,” Decker said in a telephone interview Thursday.

The indictment charges all three with immigration fraud, according to a statement from the U.S. Attoey’s Office. This charge carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

The indictment also charges Cheykh with fraud and misuse of visas, permits and other documents, perjury and two counts of making material false statements to federal agents, according to the statement.

These four charges carry a combined statutory maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison.

Marquez was indicted by a federal grand jury at the end of 2015 with conspiring with Syed Rizwan Farook to provide material support to terrorists, he was also charged with entering into a sham marriage with Cheykh in November 2014 and illegally signing an immigration form that falsely declared he was living with her.

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The day before the San Beardino terrorist attack, Tatiana Farook accompanied Marquez and Cheykh to purchase a wedding ring for $50 in Riverside, according to the indictment. After the attack, on Dec. 3, Tatiana Farook told federal agents that Marquez and Cheykh were living together at the Forum Way address in Riverside.

FBI agents previously interviewed Cheykh at the Ontario home of a man she described as her “ex-boyfriend,” who is also the father of her child. It was unclear if that home was the location where the Ontario warrant was served Thursday.

Marques is scheduled to next appear in federal court in Riverside on June 27. Trial is tentatively scheduled for July 19.

On Thursday moing, a man who answered the door at Marquez’s Riverside home declined to comment about the arrest of Marquez’s wife.

In February, federal agents executed a search warrant at Farook’s Corona home, where he and his mother live.

Investigators took a computer tower, large envelopes and bags from the house on Forum Way, but made no arrests that day.

At the time, Eimiller said the affidavit in support of the warrant was sealed by the court.

Syed Raheel Farook’s brother, Syed Rizwan Farook, was one of the shooters who killed 14 people and wounded 22 others in the terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center on Dec. 2.

On Nov. 5, 2015, roughly a month before the Dec. 2 terrorist attack in San Beardino, Marquez state on his social media account that he was involved in terrorist plots and he might go to prison for fraud, according to the federal indictment.

Raheel Farook, his wife, Tatiana, their child and his father, Syed Farook, all live in the Corona townhouse.

Raheel, a U.S. Navy veteran, eaed medals in the war on terrorism.

On Thursday moing, the neighborhood surrounding the Corona townhome was calm and quiet, with a handful of coffee-toting neighbors entering their cars en route to work. As word spread about the warrants, news media began to arrive.

Neighbor Dane Adams, who live two doors down from Farook, said he and his wife, Brittani, were shocked to lea the warrants had been served without them hearing or seeing anything Thursday moing.

“I’m a little bit stued. I thought this was over,” said Adams, 24.

Adams said he’d spoken to the brothers’ father, who lives at the house, just the other day. The elder Syed Farook didn’t seem nervous or troubled, Adams said.

Neighbor Stacy Mozer went over to the Farooks’ house shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday to talk and see if he could help them in some way.

The 55-year-old printer said he’s gotten to know the Farooks since the Dec. 2 attack. He described the family as friendly people.

“They’re great people. Nice people. Friendly,” he said, standing on Forum Way outside the Farooks’ home. “Good, good, good people.”

Raheel Farook has told Mozer he didn’t know anything about his brother’s plans and that he himself was not involved in the attack.

“He’s an ex-Marine. He served his country,” Mozer said.

Raheel Farook told Mozer there was nothing he could do but wait and see what federal officials were going to do.

“He said, ‘What can you do? You just have to roll with it,’” Mozer said.

Mozer then went to the Farooks’ door and spoke with the brothers’ father. He said Syed Farook told him no one had been arrested at the house Thursday moing.

Tatiana and her sister, Mariya Cheykh, are under scrutiny after Riverside resident Enrique Marquez Jr. reportedly told investigators that he was being paid $200 a month for marrying Cheykh. Both women are Russian natives, and there is conce that the marriages were arranged to illegally ease the women’s path to U.S. citizenship.

Rafia Farook, mother of Rizwan and Raheel, has also been living at the Corona home, apparently since moving belongings out of the Redlands townhouse she shared with the shooters.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.