Breaking this AM: U.S. charges 18 after arms smuggling sting
Plot allegedly involved grenade launchers, shoulder-fired missiles
[KLP Note: Evidently, the leaders of this group are illegally residing in the US!]
MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 11:49 a.m. ET March 15, 2005
NEW YORK - Eighteen people have been charged with conspiring to illegally import rocket-propelled grenades, shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles and other weapons from eastern European countries, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.
They have been charged, among other crimes, with conspiracy, interstate shipment of illegal devices, including machine guns and mines and the illegal possession of those arms, U.S. Attorney David Kelley told reporters.
A government informant essentially posed as an arms broker for terrorists, Kelley said. The defendants brought AK-47s and an Uzi into the country and delivered them to storage facilities in various locations.
At that point an “even broader scheme” evolved to smuggle heat-seeking SAMs, anti-tank missiles and fully automatic assault rifles, among other weapons, at a cost of more than $2 million, Kelley said.
A willing buyer
The informant contacted the FBI after he was approached by a man who said he had access to weapons from the former Soviet Union and believed the informant, an explosives expert, could find a willing buyer, according to a law enforcement source, who spoke Tuesday to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Over the following year, the informant purchased eight assault weapons in locations around the country. Using a digital camera provided by the informant, members of the ring, which included Armenians and South Africans, provided pictures of the weapons they said they had available for sale, the official said.
The pictures, apparently taken somewhere in Armenia, show anti-tank missiles, a Russian missile launcher and a recoilless anti-tank rifle, among other weapons, the official said.
Arrests have been made in New York, Miami and Los Angeles, the source said.
The defendants also are charged in a criminal complaint with conspiring to traffic in machine guns and other assault weapons, and with selling eight such weapons.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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U.S. charges 18 in Russian weapons-smuggling plot
From Phil Hirschkorn
CNN
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Eighteen men have been charged with attempting to smuggle Russian-made military weapons into the United States, U.S. authorities said.
U.S. Attorney David Kelly announced the arrests Tuesday morning, saying the men charged had conspired to sell the weapons to terrorists, though the identity of the buyers was unclear.
The defendants were arrested late Monday and early Tuesday inside the United States, where they allegedly plotted the illegal sales.
The defendants are charged in a 63-page complaint with conspiring to traffic in machine guns and other weapons.
The defendants allegedly sold eight automatic weapons to a confidential informant who posed as an arms trafficker.
The arrests resulted from a yearlong undercover investigation by the FBI that included wiretaps.
"There is talk on the wire that the clients of the buyer are of Middle East descent," said one law enforcement source familiar with the charges. But the references were "vague," the source said.
The defendants are predominantly Armenian, Russian, and Georgian. The group's alleged ring leader was Arthur Solomonyan, an Armenian.
Ten of the alleged weapons smugglers were arrested in the New York area, two in Florida, and some in southern California.
They conducted many of their negotiations in English, according to the law enforcement source.
The attempted sales of shoulder-fired, surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) and rocket-propelled grenades never went beyond the discussion phase, and those weapons never entered the United States from abroad, the source said.
The negotiations were for multimillion-dollar sales.
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