Alleged Gunrunner's Girlfriend: “This Is a Huge Mistake”

The FBI says they have him on tape, but those who know Yanny Aguila say the truth will come out

The FBI says he tried to purchase hundreds of military automatic weapons such as M-16 and AK-47 assault rifles to ship to the Middle East, along with silencers, grenades and explosives detonators. 

But Yanny Aguila Urbay's girlfriend says it's all a big mistake.

"He was in shock when he was arrested, and kept saying to the FBI, 'What's happening, what's happening?''' 24-year-old Fiorella Ayvar told the Miami Herald.

"I screamed, 'Don't shoot! Don't shoot!' as I grabbed our 1-year-old daughter.''

Aguila was arrested Monday. But Ayvar, who moved in with Aguila in June, says she has never heard of the Palestinian that authorities say they have on tape with him, attempting to obtain the weapons from a confidential government informant.

That man, 23-year-old Hialeah High dropout Abdalaziz Aziz Hamayel, was arrested August 30 deboarding a flight from Jordan at Miami International Airport. He obtained a fraudulent passport under the guise of visiting Chicago for two weeks, but spent a year in the West Bank instead.

Federal authorities say it was Aguila who first contacted a government informer last April, looking for weapons on Hamayel's behalf. Though the parties spoke several times, and Hamayel viewed weapons with a government employee posing as a supplier, the deal was never completed.

Aguila, 24, came to South Florida on a boat from Cuba seven years ago. Those who have lived with him since that time say there was never any indication he was involved in anything like supplying weapons to the Palestinian Authority.

"This is a huge mistake,'' Ayvar said. "The truth has to come out. He doesn't have anything to do with this.''

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