Thread: Mexico Deports Pakistani Suspect of Weapons Trafficking

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/06 ... _15_05.txt
Last modified Wednesday, June 15, 2005 10:09 PM PDT

Mexico deports Pakistani man suspected by U.S. authorities of weapons trafficking
By: MARK STEVENSON - Associated Press

MEXICO CITY -- Authorities near the border city of Tijuana detained and deported a Pakistani man who is under investigation by U.S. prosecutors for alleged weapons trafficking, and U.S. police took him into custody Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Pakistani citizen Arif Durrani was detained as he left a restaurant in Playas de Rosarito, near Tijuana, by Mexican police acting on information from U.S. authorities, the Attorney General's Office said in a statement.

Durrani was deported by Mexico on a flight to his native Pakistan. But he was taken into U.S. custody during a layover in Los Angeles, said U.S. consular spokeswoman Liza Davis in Tijuana.

Another U.S. official speaking on customary condition of anonymity confirmed that Durrani was currently the target of an ongoing arms trafficking investigation.

Durrani was convicted in the United States in 1987 of selling missile parts to Iran; a former U.S. resident, he was deported from the United States in 1998, and has apparently lived in Mexico since then.

It was not clear if that investigation was related to Durrani's prior conviction, in which he claimed to have acted as part of the Iran-Contra scandal.

U.S. officials refused to divulge specific details of the current investigation; the Mexican statement said "Durrani faces an arrest warrant in the United States for trafficking in anti-aircraft missiles."

Durrani who was deported in 1998 after serving a five-year U.S. prison sentence for violating the Arms Export Control Act for selling anti-aircraft missile parts to Iran.

In 2003, Durrani petitioned a U.S. court to have his conviction overturned, and asked to review more government documents in an attempt to prove he sold the parts at the behest of former Lt. Col. Oliver North and other U.S. officials.

Durrani claims he was part of the U.S. effort to exchange arms for American hostages held in Lebanon. He said North, a former National Security Council aide, told him to ship the missile parts to Iran and not to worry about getting an export license.

Mexican authorities said Durrani was detained earlier this week along with three Afghan-born men and a Syrian, all of whom apparently entered Tijuana from the United States.

The five were picked up as federal police and soldiers were deployed over the weekend to reinforce local police struggling against a surge in violence linked to drug gangs along the Mexico side of the U.S. border.

None of the five had a Mexican tourist visa, and all were considered to be in the country without permission.

The Afghans and the Syrian are all U.S. citizens or residents and all were deported to the United States Wednesday; none of them faces any charges or apparently any ongoing investigation there.

Updated article.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtm ... ID=8845291

Pakistani arms dealer pleads not guilty in U.S.
Mon Jun 20, 2005 11:50 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Pakistani man convicted of exporting missile parts to Iran almost 20 years ago pleaded not guilty on Monday to federal charges that he illegally exported fighter jet engine components after serving out his prison term in the first case.
Arif Ali Durrani, 55, was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport last week after he was picked up by authorities in Mexico where he had been living.

He is being held without bail pending trial scheduled for Aug. 9.

Federal prosecutors charge that a California-based company owned by Durrani called Lonestar Aerospace shipped 110 compressor blades for a military jet engine to foreign customers in 1994.

Durrani was convicted in 1987 of violating U.S. arms export controls by shipping guidance systems for the Hawk anti-aircraft missile from the United States to Iran.

In that case, Durrani claimed his actions were part of a U.S. government-sanctioned covert operation in connection with the Iran-Contra affair, which involved secret American arms sales to Iran to fund Contra rebels fighting the left-wing Nicaraguan government.

Durrani was released from prison in 1992 when the U.S. government sought to deport him based on his criminal record. He left voluntarily in 1998 for Mexico.

The jet engine parts Durrani is charged with exporting without a license are the main power source for the engine used in the Tiger II fighter jet, prosecutors said.

The United States government sold that 1970s-era jet to a number of countries, including Iran before the Islamic revolution in 1979 overthrew the U.S.-backed Shah.

"You wouldn't put these in your lawn mower. These parts have no other application other than for military use," said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement under the Department of Homeland Security.

U.S. law requires anyone exporting items classified as defense articles to be licensed by the State Department. Customs agents began investigating Durrani in 1993 and the federal indictment against him was filed in 1999.

He was picked up by Mexican police who said they were acting in cooperation with U.S. authorities as he left a restaurant in the Playas de Rosarito beach town, just south of California.

Mexico deported Durrani to his native Pakistan on a flight with a stop in Los Angeles and U.S. customs agents then arrested him on arrival in the United States.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 936086.htm

Posted on Tue, Oct. 18, 2005

Former Navy intelligence officer pleads guilty to arms exports

SETH HETTENA

Associated Press


SAN DIEGO - A former military intelligence officer pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of illegally exporting military aircraft parts overseas, saying that he acted on behalf of a convicted Pakistani arms dealer.

George Charles Budenz II, a retired Navy commander, said he shipped engine parts for F-5 fighters, T-38 military trainers and Chinook helicopters to Malaysia and Belgium without a U.S. State Department permit.

Investigators said the F-5 parts may have wound up in Iran, a country that Budenz has visited.

Budenz, 57, had faced a 30-year prison term, but prosecutors said they will recommend up to 6 1/2 years under a plea agreement when he is sentenced in January. Budenz surrendered his passport and was freed on $35,000 bond.

In court, Budenz admitted that he made the shipments via Federal Express in December 2004 and January 2005 at the direction of Arif Ali Durrani, who pleaded not guilty last month to charges of conspiring to illegally export military aircraft engine parts to the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and Belgium.

Prosecutor William Cole, speaking to reporters, declined to say Budenz had agreed to cooperate with Durrani's investigation, as did defense attorney Thomas P. Matthews.

In his plea agreement, Budenz admitted that he knew Durrani had been convicted in 1987 of selling guidance systems for Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. Throughout the trial, Durrani maintained Oliver North, a former National Security Council aide, told him to make the shipments and not worry about an export license.

Investigators with Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Durrani, who had been kicked out of the United States and was living in Baja California, Mexico, reached out to Budenz for help resuming his illegal military export business.

"Mr. Durrani was the mastermind of this conspiracy and Mr. Budenz, he was the lieutenant or the facilitator in getting these products out of the United States," said Serge Duarte, deputy special agent in charge of ICE's San Diego office. While investigators have yet to determine what happened to the parts, Duarte said, "it's conceivable these parts could have gone to Iran or other parts of the world."

Investigators have not recovered the parts that Budenz shipped overseas.

Matthews said his client had a stamp in his passport showing he had visited Iran, but the attorney was not sure when the trip took place and said no evidence has been presented showing Budenz had sold weapons there.

Matthews described Budenz as a victim, who had been in poor health and financial trouble when Durrani "coerced" him into making the illegal shipments.

"He was basically in a vulnerable position, acting at the direction of another," the attorney said. "Maybe he put blinders on, but to his knowledge these items were never going beyond their immediate destination."

Durrani's attorney, Moe Nadim, has said Budenz had traveled to Iran and personally sold the aircraft parts, but did not do so at Durrani's instruction.

Budenz's military service record shows he served in the U.S. Navy for more than a quarter-century, most of it as a reserve intelligence officer with postings all over the world.

The Navy sent him to Indonesia, the Philippines, Panama, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile among other places, said Navy spokesman Mike McClellan. He also served seven separate two-week stints in the Defense Intelligence Agency between 1982 and 1991. He retired in 1994 with honors that include the Joint Service Commendation Medal.

In 1996, he served in the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's mission to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

A third man, Richard Tobey, pleaded guilty in August to conspiring to violate U.S. arms export control laws and said that Durrani instructed him to send a T-38 cockpit canopy to the United Arab Emirates in 2004.