Sameer "Sam" Ahmed is a Syrian-born American citizen who became an informant during his affiliation with terrorists, then fought efforts to extradite him for his crimes.
Background[]
Sam moved to New York City at the age of four and became a U.S. citizen at the age of 23. His father sought refuge in the U.S. after being imprisoned and tortured illegally for three years. His brother was going to college in Yemen to major in engineering, and they still kept in touch through phone calls. Despite billing himself as a patriot, Sam committed numerous crimes to advance his ambitions to work in stereo equipment sales. In 2007, Sam broke into and stole stereo equipment from a Flatbush tech warehouse and fled with it in a van. He then escalated to virtual kidnappings, or fake kidnappings meant to scare families into paying him ransoms in exchange for their loved ones' releases when they weren't in any danger in the first place. Afterwards, he kept the ransoms for his future business. Sam later became affiliated with Charles Cole and his friends, who wanted a cut of the stolen money to fund a terrorist plot. In 2010, he targeted a teen who cut class, Jill Sorenson, for his latest virtual kidnapping scheme. When she went to the movie theater in Times Square with a friend, Sam swiped her phone, placed a call to her parents, and used his audio equipment experience to synthesize a threat to Jill's life.
Great Satan[]
Jill's father Don went to the drop point but took a gun with him in the hopes of scaring Sam into revealing Jill's location. Don mistook a man digging through the trash, James Caruso, for the fake kidnapper and shot him. Don was tracked down and arrested just as Jill came home unscathed and revealed where she actually was, which exposed the setup. Jill's phone records led to Sam's brother in Yemen, which then led to Sam. While listening in on his calls during a sting operation, Detectives Lupo and Bernard overheard Sam informing Cole that he was going to pick up money at another drop from another virtual kidnapping. They arranged for backup, and Sam was arrested once he moved in for the money. He insisted to Lupo and Bernard that he wasn't a terrorist and then revealed that he met with jihadists and wanted to turn them in, knowing that they'd be suspicious if he didn't arrive with the money. Lupo and Bernard reluctantly released him. Sam then met up with Cole, gave him the money, and then demanded to be a part of their plot, pretending to sympathize with their extremist beliefs.
Once the group accepted Sam into their ranks, Lupo and Bernard registered him as an NYPD informant, kept the case within their precinct, and surveyed the group's meetings, eventually identifying all of them. Bernard was sent in as a bitter war veteran acquainted with Sam. They provided Cole with fake C-4 and real blasting caps meant to detonate the C-4. This satisfied Cole and allowed him to commence with the operation. One night, Sam accompanied the group as they tried to carry out their plan, which was to bomb a synagogue, but the police surrounded and arrested all of them after one of Cole's accomplices became scared and refused to detonate the C-4. As the arrests were being made, another synagogue was bombed nearby, though no one was injured, and Sam was cleared of any involvement with that bombing. Cole later revealed that Arthur Jackson, one of his former cellmates, spoke of the same location with Cole and planned his own bombing with two accomplices, who were also all arrested shortly thereafter.
During the ensuing trial, it was revealed that Sam had provided one of Cole's accomplices, Joe Darwish, with drugs just so he'd show up at the synagogue in the first place, and that the blasting caps given to Cole were passed on to Jackson to use in his own bombs. As a result, the defense claimed that their clients were victims of entrapment and police misconduct. In addition, Sam perjured himself on the stand, claiming that he had never committed a crime, when one of the defense lawyers threatened him with the revelation of his earlier robbery, which would have him deported. Bernard confronted Sam at a spot overlooking the Statue of Liberty, mixing discussion of America's freedom with Sam's responsibility to testify now that his warehouse robbery was found out. Compelled, Sam took the stand again and admitted to the robbery and perjury, but he stood by the rest of his previous testimony. In the end, all of the defendants were found guilty, except for Cole, who pleaded to twelve years for a reduced charge of attempted arson. Sam was subsequently detained and arranged for deportation, with the team differing on whether they should help him or abandon him. ADA Rubirosa decided to take Sam's side and found an old case where technicalities would offer a chance to keep him in the country. His fate is ultimately left unknown.