Former Hero Car Dealer Now Charged with Trying to Arm, Fund Hezbollah

Patrick Nayyar, a 45-year-old Indian immigrant who has been living in the country illegally for more than a decade, was caught on tape telling an FBI informant posing as a member of Hezbollah that he was going to sell him guns, ammunition, vehicles, and bullet proof vests. Nayyar also provided the informant with a hand-gun, ammunition, and a pick-up truck, under the pretense that the items would go to Hezbollah in Lebanon...

Two years ago, this same man did something extremely heroic. According the 2007 Daily News article, he witnessed an taxi driver who was arguing with a couple over a fare kick a man out of a the cab and speed off on Queens Boulevard with the man's wife. Nayyar trailed the taxi in an SUV he owned and sped in front of it, blocking the car.

Nayyar then confronted the cabbie and demanded that he release the woman. When the driver demanded $25, Nayyar gave him ten, and then drove the woman to reunite with her husband a few blocks away.

"Most people say it's not my problem or let the police handle it," the married father of two told the News. "I saw her in trouble and I acted on it."

Nayyar pleaded not guilty today in federal court. While he was working as a used car dealer at the time the News article was written, today his lawyer said that he was a superintendent of the building in which he lived, and did construction jobs as well.

A month ago, he was taken into custody for possessing a firearm -- a Colt Delta Elite Auto handgun.

Conrad Stanisclaus Mulholland, a U.K. citizen, has also been charged in the case.