Former fugitive accused in 2001 eco-terror case pleads not guilty in Sacramento court

Twenty years after suspected eco-terrorists set fire to a horse corral at a federal facility near Susanville, a one-time international fugitive charged in a case alleging numerous arson attacks nationwide pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Sacramento federal court.

Joseph Mahmoud Dibee, 53, who was apprehended in 2018 in Havana as he prepared to board a flight to Russia, entered the plea during a Zoom appearance in court on a 2006 federal grand jury indictment charging him with arson and conspiracy to commit arson in the corral fire.

Dibee was one of 12 defendants named in indictments in Oregon and Sacramento in 2006 alleging they were part of a group called “The Family” that conducted arson attacks across the West .

Feds say ‘The Family’ caused $45 million in damage

The Justice Department said the group has been linked to as many as 40 attacks that caused more than $45 million in damage, attacks that were the focus of an FBI domestic terror probe dubbed Operation Backfire.

Court papers say members of the group used two-way radios, police scanners, kitchen timers, matches and five-gallon plastic buckets filled with fuel to target U.S. Bureau of Land Management buildings in California, Oregon and Wyoming.

Other targets included a Vail, Colo., ski resort that sustained $12 million in damages in an October 1998 arson, meat companies and a Eugene, Ore., truck dealership, court papers say.

The group was said to be supportive of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front, and used code names, nicknames and other surreptitious means to shield its activities, court papers say.

Dibee, whose nickname was “Seattle,” had been in custody in Oregon since being returned to the United States following his capture.

Suspect was released from custody in January

He was released by a federal judge in January after he contracted COVID-19 in jail and was attacked by another inmate, requiring him to have surgery on his jaw, Oregon court records say.

The judge’s order came after Dibee’s third request to be released from custody, and despite opposition from federal prosecutors in Oregon who argued that he fled prosecution once before and might do so again.

“Dibee was personally responsible for at least two arsons,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing in March 2020 opposing his release then. “In July of 1997, Dibee helped to destroy the Cavel West Meat Packing Plant in Redmond, Oregon, using timing devices he designed and fabricated.

“Four years later, he helped destroy the Bureau of Land Management’s Wild Horse Corrals near Litchfield, California. Dibee and his attorney met with the government in December of 2005.

“After hearing the case against him, Dibee destroyed evidence and enlisted a friend to drive him to Mexico. From Mexico City, Dibee flew to Beirut, Lebanon. From Lebanon, he traveled to Syria where he established residence. He eventually moved to Russia where he met and married his wife, who remains in Russia.”

Despite those concerns, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken allowed his release earlier this year, and placed him under a curfew at a home in Seattle.

In Sacramento, U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah Barnes agreed to allow Dibee to remain out of custody as the case progresses, and set the next hearing for July 12.

Judge found it ‘impossible’ he could flee again

She noted that “both his Syrian passport and Russian residency paper are now expired and travel out of the country would be practically impossible,” and said she found Dibee’s argument that he wants to find a way to end the case “credible.”

“Defendant also argues that he has realized after his detention in Cuba that the only way to put these charges behind him is to resolve this case,” she wrote.

In an interview last month with Oregon Public Broadcasting, Dibee maintained that he had changed over the years.

Dibee calls himself an ‘environmentalist’

“The reality is I’m an environmentalist, and somebody decided to say that I’m part of some organization that doesn’t exist,” Dibee told reporter Conrad Wilson. “It’s more, as I understand it, the philosophy that binds people. And that’s quite different than what the government is claiming.”

In Oregon, Dibee and others were indicted in the July 21, 1997, firebombing of the Cavel West horse meat slaughterhouse in Redmond, where court papers say they dressed in dark clothing and mixed soap and petroleum products together as incendiary devices.

Dibee drilled holes in the walls of the plant to allow fuel to be poured inside while others planted devices with timers to burn the facility, court papers say.

Then, they went back to their original staging area and placed their dark clothes and shoes in a hole they had dug, poured acid into the hole and buried the items, court papers say.

Five days later, a communique was issued attributing the arson to ALF and the “Equine and Zebra Liberation Front,” court papers say.

Three years after that, Dibee contacted another of the defendants and instructed him to “return to the staging area and retrieve the buried clothes,” the 83-page indictment filed in Oregon says.

One suspect remains at large after 15 years

In California, Dibee and three others were indicted in the Oct. 15, 2001, arson at the BLM’s Litchfield Wild Horse and Burro Corrals near Susanville.

Dibee was charged with conspiracy to commit arson, arson of a government building, and use of a destructive device, counts that could send him to prison for up to 30 years.

Sacramento Bee archives say the fire burned a barn and 250 bales of hay and caused $85,000 in damages.

Only one defendant from “The Family” remains at large — Josephine Sunshine Overaker, who is believed to be 47 to 50 and described by the FBI as fluent in Spanish.

“She was a vegan and may still be,” the FBI said in one of its “most wanted posters” offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to her capture.

This story was originally published May 5, 2021 at 10:32 AM.