Scorched building in Pine Lawn has ties to high-profile federal suspect
PINE LAWN, Mo. – Residents and leaders want action on a burned-out building that’s tied to a notorious criminal suspect.
The scorched property sits on a main drag of Pine Lawn, on Kienlen at Dardanella.
“It puts a dark shadow over stuff that needs to be better on a main street,” Yak Bellamy said.
You can still smell the char, even though it burned years ago.
Pine Lawn Alderwoman Dionne Peeples-Jones can see it from her backyard.
“I live here. Every day, I have to pass by this area,” she said.
Yet she’s more concerned about her residents.
“This is a viable strip; not to mention, we have homeowners,” she said.
The property was previously a Nixon Brothers Auto Service, Bellamy said, next to Pine Lawn Elementary School.
“It was a beautiful building back when I was a youngster,” he said.
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Bellamy just renovated a building next door. He opened Ollie IV Automotive and Sales in memory of the brother he lost.
“Uplifting the community and turning it around,” he said, “because we have a lot of derelict vehicles and people that’s leaving the community, and we want to add to the community.”
The eyesore next door doesn’t help. St. Louis County Real Estate records say taxes haven’t been paid on the property since 2019. Those real estate records list the owner as ISYM Enterprises LLC.
FOX 2 checked the state database for more answers.
Missouri Secretary of State records took us to a Bridgeton neighborhood listed as the address for ISUM Enterprises and the name Rami Almuttan. Neighbors say it’s the same Almuttan caught up in a federal cigarette smuggling sting in 2017 because they remember the raids on the home.
FOX 2 captured many of those 2017 raids, which were spread out across the St. Louis metro area and led to the criminal indictment of 35 defendants for a cigarette smuggling conspiracy.
Almuttan was sentenced to four years in prison but remains out of custody on appeal. FOX 2 was unable to make personal contact with Almuttan. We tried calling on four occasions and left messages twice. He never responded.
“He is destroying my community in a number of ways,” Peeples-Jones said.
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The alderwoman says the City of Pine Lawn has taken action to abate the property on its own, but she thinks Almuttan should pay.
There is a sizable amount of money and property linked to Almuttan, according to a forfeiture order that the feds filed in the cigarette smuggling case this past October. The list includes hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash.
“He told me he didn’t have money to tear it down, but as I see in the documents, he had Rolex watches, guns, and tens of thousands of dollars just on hand,” Peeples-Jones said. “I think he can tear this down.”
Bellamy said the abandoned property “hinders the whole area.”
Both Bellamy and Alderwoman Peeples-Jones are optimistic, saying the area deserves better.
“We want this gone, and I think it’s going to happen,” Peeples-Jones said.
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