During the Veterans Day ceremony last Wednesday at the Cody Prosser Veterans Memorial, Richard Sheffield thanked Ray Akari, manager of Frazier Park Market, for donating food for the day’s barbecue. He also mentioned to the crowd that Akari is a veteran of the Syrian Army.

For many years a circle of relatives and former neighbors, mostly Christian immigrants with roots in Syria, have worked together to buy up and run nearly all the retail markets in the Mountain Communities. They also are said to have a chain of nearly two dozen liquor stores in Los Angeles County.

The group has been eager to keep their names out of the newspaper. Traditions of a free press are not part of Syrian culture. After buying Frazier Park Market they even withdrew the centerfold ad which had been in the community newspaper for over 40 years, breaking a local tradition of partnership in these mountains.

Now economic interests have taken Manhal ‘Mike’ Khalil—essentially the regional manager of the investment group—and Ray Akari into the public eye.

On November 6, two weeks ago, we ran a short report on page 17 about a public…(Read the full interview with Mike Khalil in the print copy of your local newspaper. Or log in using your paid subscription to read it here on the website.)

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This is part of the November 20, 2015 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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