New light is being shed on the “quiet” life of Islamic terrorists Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik with new information about his neighbor Enrique Marquez, the man who purchased the two guns used by the duo to kill 14 people and injure 21 during last week’s deadly San Bernardino massacre.
In 2014–just one year after Farook and Malik were married–Marquez reportedly married Mariya Chernykh, the sister-in-law of Farook’s older brother. The radicalized couple’s Russian in-laws have now become another focus of a multi-faceted investigation probing whether Farook and Malik were a match specifically made for the purpose of jihadi terror.
According to ABC News, Chernykh, 25, moved from Russia to the U.S. in 2009, joining her sister Tatiana, who is married to Syed Raheel Farook, terrorist Syed Rizwan’s older brother.
Syed Raheel reportedly vouched for Marquez at the time of his now-questionable marriage to Chernykh, saying that he would have the financial means necessary to support her.
However, as Steve Sailer points out, public records show Chernykh did not share an address with Marquez, but with another man, Oscar Romero. Sailer adds that Chernykh and Romero posed frequently in photos together with a baby girl, whom they referred to as their daughter, until just two months before Chernykh’s marriage to Marquez. After that, all mention of Romero reportedly disappeared from her social media pages, yet she still kept her name as Mariya Romero on Russian social media sites.
Reuters notes that Marquez lived at home this entire time and several neighbors were surprised to hear he was married because they had never seen him with a woman. “I saw no sign of him having a wife–it was only his mom in the house,” Lori Aguirre, who lives across the street told Reuters. “It would be a big surprise if he was married.”
In recent days, Marquez reportedly told federal investigators that he and Farook had planned a terrorist attack in 2012 but abandoned it, following the arrest of four radical Islamists from Southern California. A man named Soheil Kabir is thought to have recruited Farook prior to his 2012 arrest and prison sentencing.
Marquez–who had converted to Islam over the course of his friendship with Farook–had told Azmi Hasan, manager at the Islamic Society of Corona-Norco three years ago “that Islam was not for him. He said that he was thinking about becoming a Buddhist,” notes Reuters.
Marquez reportedly faces federal indictment over his connection with the San Bernardino attack.
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