Miami ? A South Florida Muslim leader with ties to dirty bomb suspect Jose Padilla has been arrested by a federal counterterrorism task force and is being held on an alleged immigration violation, Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman Rodney Germain said Saturday.

Adham Hassoun, 40, was one of the leaders of the al-Iman mosque in Broward County, which Padilla attended when he was converting to Islam in the early and mid-1990s.

Hassoun, described by federal sources as a friend of Padilla’s, once served as North American distributor for Call of Islam magazine, a publication that advocates jihad, or holy war. He also helped launch Benevolence International Foundation, a Chicago-area charity accused by the Bush administration of funding terrorists.

Hassoun and Padilla worshipped at the same Fort Lauderdale, Fla., mosque, Masjid Al-Iman, through much of the 1990s, according to its current prayer leader, Rafiq Mahdi.

The spiritual leader in those years, Raed Awad, was chief Florida officer of another charity targeted for possible terror links, the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development.

FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said Hassoun had been arrested Wednesday by the South Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force, which includes the FBI, the INS and other law enforcement agencies.

Padilla is accused of plotting with al-Qaida leaders to detonate a radioactive bomb in the United States.

He was arrested May 8 at O’Hare Airport after deplaning a flight from Zurich.

Neither his attorney, Donna Newman, nor any member of his family has been allowed to speak to Padilla at the South Carolina military brig where he is being held.

“His mom hasn’t seen him. I can tell you, he has not had communications with his family,” Newman told The Miami Herald. “He has not been able to call his family. He can’t even call me.”