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| Europe |
| Bout associate arrested in Italy... |
| 2002-08-04 |
| Italian police have arrested a man suspected of having links to arms trafficking and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network for travelling on a false passport. Police acting on a tip-off, arrested Sanjivan Ruprah, 36, in Cremona on Friday. He was travelling on a false Belgian passport. Everybody seems to have false passports. Are there any genuine passports to be found on four continents? "Sanjivan Ruprah is an internationally known figure," a police spokesman told Reuters. "He is known as an international trafficker of arms and diamonds and has already been arrested in Belgium, from where he was released on bail." Kenyan-born Ruprah's name appears on a list published by the United Nations in 1999 of people banned from international flights because of links to arms and diamond trafficking in Africa. Guess that explains the false passport. Otherwise, he'd have had to take the train... The Washington Post reported in February that Ruprah had been secretly providing U.S. and European investigators with information about a Russian associate Victor Bout, who was suspected of supplying weapons to al Qaeda. The Post report appeared about three weeks after Ruprah was arrested in Belgium for what police said was possession of false documents and criminal association. It's habit. If he could break that false documents habit, he'd be home free... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |