Former Brookline Mobil Employee Reportedly Deported to Pakistan

Aftab Ali, the former Brookline Mobil gas station employee linked to last year's  failed car bombing in New York City's Times Square, reportedly has been sent home to Pakistan.

The Associated Press writes that federal immigration officials accompanied the 28-year old Ali today on a flight from Boston to Islamabad.

Ali had been arrested on immigration violations shortly after the car bomb attempt  took place on May 1, 2010.

AP says Ali had pled guilty to immigration and illegal money-transfer charges, but he did not face terrorism-related charges.

Federal authorities say he unwittingly supplied $4,900 to Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American man who admitted to parking an sport utility vehicle filled with explosives in Times Square. Shahzad was convicted in the attempted bombing.

Ali had originally come under suspicion when federal investigators found that he had received cell phone calls from Shahzad, according to testimony submitted to Federal Court last November by Immigation and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Timothy Irving.

Phone records also show Shahzad made calls to the Mobil gas station in Brookline where Ali worked, according to court documents.

Ali also borrowed $5,000 from his manager at the Mobil. The money was then wired to Pakistan, investigators said, and they linked the transfer to money that was later sent to Shahzad.

Ali had come to the U.S. in August 2009 on a 90-day visa to get married.