A federal investigation spanning 3 years lands in Western Wisconsin. A Frederic police officer arrested a wanted man on Tuesday. On Wednesday more details about the case were released.

Federal court documents show 30-year-old Abdiaziz Hassan is part of a large khat smuggling ring that has international ties. He was arrested in the Polk County town for speeding. The DEA says Hassan was not one of the major players.

Investigators say they found khat in his vehicle. Court documents show at least 40 people may have been involved in the conspiracy to traffic khat to East African immigrants living in the U.S. khat, is a leafy drug that's illegal in the U.S. federal investigators had been dealing with this case since 2004. The DEA says this arrest leaves only one defendant still at large. Three have been convicted.

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Tuesday September 12ths Story

A Minnesota man is in the Polk County jail after being arrested for trafficking drugs, not for terrorism charges, as the Frederick Police Chief earlier told NewsCenter 13.

Frederick Police Chief R.J. Severude says one of his officers stopped a van for speeding around 11:30 Tuesday morning in Polk County.

He says when the officer ran the driver's Minnesota license, it came up with felony warrants.

Severude says the driver, Hassan Mohammed Abdiaziz, is a delivery man from the Minneapolis area.

Severude originally told NewsCenter 13 Abdiaziz was wanted on fugitive warrants for drug trafficking, money laundering and financing terrorist attacks inside and outside the country.

Now Severude says Abdiaziz is only facing federal drug charges, and is not a terrorism suspect. He says Abdiaziz was booked at the Polk County Jail and agents from the U.S. Marshall's office are on the way to question him.

After Severude's comments, the FBI's Milwaukee office issued a statement saying that the man had only a warrant from the Drug Enforcement Administration, that he wasn't wanted by the FBI and he isn't on a terrorist watch list.

The Drug Enforcement Agency says Abdiaziz was wanted as part of Operation Somalia Express. That's an international drug trafficking case involving the drug khat.

The DEA says khat is a stimulant that is chewed like tobacco and most commonly used in the Middle East.

Severude says his department did find khat in Abdiaziz's van Tuesday morning.

Officer Larry Bergeron made the traffic stop. He says when he told Abdiaziz there were warrants out for his arrest, Abdiaziz was surprised, but did not resist arrest.