FBI Infiltrates Orange County Mosques with Informant in Dragnet Surveillance

The FBI ordered informant Craig Monteilh to infiltrate multiple large mosques in Orange County, California, in a dragnet surveillance operation that targeted entire Muslim communities rather than specific suspects. The operation exemplified the FBI’s post-9/11 practice of religious profiling and mass surveillance of Muslim Americans.

The Infiltration Operation

In 2006, the FBI recruited Craig Monteilh, a fitness instructor with a criminal record, to pose as a Muslim convert and spy on congregants at several prominent Orange County mosques. Monteilh, who renamed himself “Farouk al-Aziz,” professed his conversion during Ramadan before hundreds of worshippers, attended prayers regularly, and worked to befriend community members.

Over the next year, Monteilh wore recording devices concealed in his car keys and cell phone to record thousands of hours of conversations. He was instructed to gather information on all mosque attendees, their associations, and their activities—regardless of whether any individual was suspected of wrongdoing. The FBI paid Monteilh $177,000 for his services.

Provocateur Tactics

Monteilh’s assignment went beyond passive surveillance. He actively attempted to provoke community members into making extremist statements or expressing support for violence. He talked about jihad, suggested violent actions, and tried to entice people into illegal activities. His behavior became so concerning that mosque members reported him to the FBI—unaware that he was already working for the Bureau.

When Monteilh’s increasingly aggressive provocations alarmed community members, several mosques obtained restraining orders against him. The community’s decision to report “Farouk” to law enforcement demonstrated that American Muslims were acting as partners in counterterrorism, yet the FBI continued treating the entire community as suspect.

Scope of Dragnet Surveillance

The Orange County operation was not targeted at specific individuals suspected of terrorism. Instead, it represented dragnet surveillance: collecting information on entire religious communities based solely on their faith. Monteilh recorded conversations with hundreds of people, the vast majority of whom were never suspected of any wrongdoing.

The operation treated mosque attendance itself as grounds for surveillance, creating a chilling effect where Muslims feared that anything they said during prayer, religious study, or social gatherings could be recorded and used against them. This transformed houses of worship into spaces of suspicion and fear.

Legal Challenge and Government Immunity Claims

In 2011, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of three Muslim community members against the FBI, challenging the dragnet surveillance as unconstitutional religious discrimination. The FBI invoked the “state secrets privilege,” arguing that the case could not proceed because defending against the lawsuit would require revealing classified national security information.

This use of state secrets privilege created a Catch-22: the government could conduct unconstitutional surveillance, then shield that surveillance from judicial review by claiming that any examination of its actions would compromise national security. The case eventually reached the Supreme Court, which in 2022 allowed the lawsuit to proceed, rejecting the government’s claim of absolute immunity.

Broader Pattern of Muslim Surveillance

The Orange County operation was part of a wider FBI program of mosque surveillance and informant infiltration following 9/11. The FBI recruited over 15,000 informants—the most in its history—and directed many of them to infiltrate Muslim communities. Studies found that the FBI particularly targeted Black Muslims, who were more than three times as likely as white non-Muslims to be subjected to sting operations.

Community Impact

Former mosque attendees described the lasting impact of the surveillance: the fear of speaking freely even in religious settings, the breakdown of trust within communities, the reluctance to attend religious services, and the sense of being perpetually suspect. Some Muslims reported watching what they said, whom they spoke with, and how often they attended services—effectively limiting their exercise of religious freedom due to government surveillance.

Significance

The Orange County mosque surveillance operation demonstrated how post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts devolved into religious profiling and dragnet surveillance that violated First Amendment protections. The operation treated an entire religious community as inherently suspect, using informants not to investigate specific threats but to monitor constitutionally protected religious practice.

The FBI’s willingness to spend nearly $200,000 on an informant to record thousands of hours of conversations in mosques—while failing to identify any criminal activity—revealed the massive resources dedicated to surveillance of Muslim communities and the low evidentiary standards used to justify such surveillance. The operation’s legacy continues to affect Muslim communities’ relationship with law enforcement and their ability to practice their faith without fear of government monitoring.