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U.S. Agents Arrest 3 in Alleged Missile-Smuggling Plot
More detail on yesterday's item...
Federal officials arrested a British man in New Jersey yesterday and said he had tried to smuggle into the United States shoulder-fired missiles that could be used to shoot down commercial jetliners. The identity of the British man arrested in Newark was under seal and could not be learned last night. But U.S. authorities said he had been ensnared in a sting operation launched by undercover federal agents who he thought were al Qaeda operatives plotting to attack airliners from U.S. soil.
| Two words: Military tribunal. |
Also arrested yesterday were two men in New York who operate an unlicensed hawala, or money transfer operation, that had wired the suspect funds overseas. The case, which involved an unusual amount of international cooperation, began when FBI agents discovered an arms dealer in Britain, who is of Indian descent, who was hunting for customers interested in purchasing Russian shoulder-fired SA-18 missiles, also variously known as Grouse or Igla missiles. The FBI approached officials from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the Homeland Security Department that focuses on overseas arms-dealing cases. The two agencies assembled a team of undercover agents who concocted a story that they were al Qaeda sympathizers who wanted to mount an attack against the United States, and then they approached the British suspect. The agents told him they wanted him first to produce a single missile to prove he had access to the weapons. They wired him money through the hawala in New York to facilitate the deal.
| Thereby frying the money men... |
The suspect then approached criminal contacts in the Russian arms-dealing world and sought to buy an SA-18 as the first stage of a much larger purchase. Meanwhile, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the KGB, had picked up word of the suspect's attempts to buy missiles for use against Americans, and Russian authorities notified U.S. officials.
| Makes a nice double check, doesn't it? |
U.S. officials then started pursuing the case with Russian help. The FSB arranged for Russian undercover operatives to supply the suspect with an inert SA-18 for transport to the United States. Just days ago the suspect was in Russia trying to arrange purchase of large batches of missiles and plastic explosives for his U.S. "customers."
| Didn't we see this once on "The Man from U.N.C.L.E."? |
The suspect was arrested in Newark yesterday morning after arriving on an international flight. The sole missile involved, an SA-18, was brought to a port in the United States — not publicly identified by U.S. officials — via ship. The missile had been rendered inoperative by investigators and was under their control during transport. The suspect is not believed to be an associate of any terrorist group, but was acting as an opportunistic arms broker. "He's just in it for the money," an FBI official said on condition of anonymity. "He was willing to deal with anybody no matter what they had in mind."
| I have in mind how nice it would be to see him with a neck a yard long. |
"There is no credible information that terrorists are in control of these kinds of missiles in this country," another federal official said.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-08-13 |
