Friends express surprise over Cedar Rapids gun smuggling charges

CEDAR RAPIDS - Ali Herz fumbles with the rifle awkwardly. A voice behind him offers instruction.

Herz, dressed in a dark shirt, jeans and a camouflage hat, looks through the gun sights and fires down range.

'Yeah!” a voice shouts. 'That's what I'm talking about!”

Herz hands off the weapon - a FN P90 semi-automatic - to another man and offers encouragement to the second shooter.

The shooting practice at an outdoor gun range is captured on video and posted to Facebook by another member of the Herz family on March 14, entitled 'Fun times.”

Two months later - on Tuesday - Ali Herz, 50; his brother, Bassem Herz, 29; his son, Adam Herz, 22; and Sarah Zeaiter, 24, the wife of Bassem Herz, were arrested on federal charges in connection with a series of raids throughout Cedar Rapids. Authorities say they conspired to smuggle caches of guns and ammunition purchased in Iowa to Lebanon, concealed among goods from a clothing drive organized by a Cedar Rapids company.

The four remain jailed and face charges of conspiracy and delivering a package to a carrier without notice that it contained firearms and ammunition.

Wednesday, a longtime employee of a former tenant of the Herz family said the video and charges belie the image they portrayed.

'That family was probably the most anti-gun family I've met,” said Andrew Becker, an employee at CR Cell Phone Repair.

The business used to operate out of the Pizza Daddy building, 1539 First Ave. SE, which is among the locations raided Tuesday. Ali Herz is the brother of the pizza restaurant's owner.

Becker and CR Cell Phone Repair owner Jacob Long said that during their two years of renting there, they got to know the family. And they did not approve of guns on the property.

'They really didn't want us to have them there,” Becker said. 'It made them really uncomfortable. That's a huge shift, to go from not liking them to theoretically shipping them to somebody.”

A federal complaint shows the four defendants legally obtained weapons and ammunition from dealers in Eastern Iowa, purchasing 113 firearms over the last 17 months. But then they conspired to conceal them in shipments, investigators said.

In March, authorities seized one shipment bound for Beirut in Norfolk, Va. They said it contained 53 firearms, parts and more than 6,800 rounds of ammunition hidden in skid loaders. Many of the weapons had been placed in bags similar to the ones used at Pizza Daddy, according to court documents.

Another intercepted container contained 99 guns, more than 9,500 rounds of ammunition and gun parts and accessories, records show.

Authorities have not disclosed who they believe was the intended recipient of the weapons.

Lebanon has a storied history of violence and is home to several armed groups, including Palestinian militias and Hezbollah's military wing. Amid civil war in neighboring Syria, the county has been besieged by refugees.

A Cedar Rapids Halal food brand, the Midamar Corp., organized a clothing drive earlier this year for Syria and Lebanon. It was among goods from the effort, officials said, that the weapons had been concealed by the four defendants.

Authorities also raided Midamar, 1105 60th Ave. SW, but made no arrests of any of its employees.

According to a court affidavit, at least three of the defendants previously made trips outside the United States, including to Lebanon, where Ali Herz was born.

He has made more than 25 trips in and out of the United States. On Dec. 2, 2014, he returned from overseas with $61,400 in cash, records show. Records also show he shipped a vehicle to Lebanon in 2003.

Adam Herz, his son, crossed the U.S. border about 15 times. He was questioned in a 'secondary inspection” twice in May 2012 and May 2014, according to the affidavit. He said both times that he was returning from Lebanon.

Records show Bassem Herz, Ali Herz's brother, also made several trips outside the United States beginning in 2003. He also previously shipped 'water equipment,” a bulldozer, front-end loader and a sport utility vehicle to Lebanon, the records show. In the latest trip, he went from Cedar Rapids to Lebanon then returned in March.

Records show no information about overseas travel for Sarah Zeaiter.

Long said he rented at the Pizza Daddy location for about two years, ending in December 2013.

Members of the Herz family bought cellphone service through him, he said, and Ali Herz bought phones for himself and relatives in Lebanon.

'They just seemed to do everything they could to provide for their families,” Long said. 'They were just always working, working hard. It seemed like they were really good people.”

Long said he thought Ali Herz was 'mostly retired,” though the man mentioned doing development on hotels or apartments in Lebanon.

Becker described Ali Herz as 'charismatic” and said the family was boisterous - except for Adam Herz.

'He's the quietest one of the family,” Becker said. 'He was the one I would least suspect to do something shady.”