Suspected terrorist busted for speeding after LV visit in June

Thursday, Nov. 1, 2001 | 9:42 a.m.

A central figure in the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks was cited June 18 for speeding in Arizona after leaving Las Vegas that day, records show.

Lotfi Raissi, an Algerian pilot believed to have trained the four pilots of the hijacked jetliners in the attacks, was cited for traveling 89 mph in a 65-mph zone on U.S. Highway 93, the road leading to Phoenix.

He was cited at 2:52 p.m. in Wickenburg, Ariz., which is about 60 miles northwest of Phoenix, by an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer.

Raissi, 27, was ordered to appear in nearby Yarnell Justice Court on July 18, but he paid a $230 fine with a money order two weeks before that date, records show.

According to a copy of the ticket, Raissi was driving a 2001 red Chrysler with Arizona plates at the time he was pulled over. The four-door vehicle was obtained from a car rental agency based in Tucson.

Raissi, who was known to have been living in Phoenix as late as September 2000, listed a Phoenix address on his Arizona driver's license.

Before being stopped on the highway, Raissi had stayed in Las Vegas with his wife from June 11-18 at the Rio and Luxor hotels, gaming sources said.

FBI agents are said to be very interested in the role he may have played in training the four men reported to have piloted the planes that crashed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

The four pilots -- identified as Mohamed Atta, Ziad Jarrah, Marwan Al-Shehhi and Hani Hanjour -- all visited Las Vegas at various times from May through August in the weeks leading to the terrorist attacks.

Raissi was arrested in London 10 days after the attacks and currently is being held there on charges he lied on an application for a pilot's license.

British prosecutors have said they have evidence Raissi flew to Arizona from Las Vegas with Hanjour on June 23.

Investigators also have learned that Raissi made a couple of trips to Las Vegas in 1999.