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Man Pleads Guilty to Impersonating ICE Officer, Seizing Teen’s Phones

He displayed a badge saying he was a “Special Agent” of ICE.

A Los Angeles man admitted to impersonating an ICE Agent and seizing and searching the cellphones of a 15-year-old boy, according to a Friday news release from the Department of Justice. Farad Gharagozlou Bell, 63, pleaded guilty to one count of “false impersonation of a federal officer” for confronting a minor in a mall parking lot last December and acting as if he worked with the Department of Homeland Security. Bell ordered the minor out of the vehicle, slammed him against the wall of the car, and looked through his cellphones without permission. He was reportedly angry that the teen had sold a guitar he had hoped to purchase. When police arrived at the scene, Bell claimed that he was a Homeland Security Agent and showed a badge with the words “UNITED STATES IDENTIFICATION” and a series of three seals. Bell faces a maximum sentence of three years, the report notes, but will likely serve “home detention and community service” as a result of the plea bargain.