The president of a Roswell, New Mexico, counter-terrorism consulting firm has been charged with possessing 2,352 unregistered small military missiles worth $54 million.
Additionally, U.S. investigators located 4,000 pounds of explosives at High Energy Access Tools (HEAT), an anti-terrorism and police training company that was conducting classes for students from the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, said Tom Mangan, a US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent.
David Hudak, a Canadian national and president of HEAT, was detained Thursday and charged with possessing missiles not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, according to a federal complaint filed Friday.
"Under the plain language of the criminal complaint ... at this time this is a licensing and regulation issue, not a terrorism issue," Assistant US Attorney Norm Cairns said. Cairns said the students are not suspected of any wrongdoing. "None of those guys were arrested or charged with anything," Cairns said late Saturday, according to AP.
For his part, Frank Fish, director of security for HEAT, said after the arrest that the company had believed it was licensed to have appropriate equipment to train U.S. allies and export them to allied nations, but later found out the permit was not filed. According to him, the company invited agencies to inspect the Roswell and Tinnie sites because HEAT wanted to be sure it was compliant.
The complaint referred to the missiles' official designation as the M141 Bunker Defeat Munition. According to the complaint, the military warheads are designed to defeat light armored vehicles or bunkers and are fired from shoulder-mounted infantry weapons. No launching devices for the missiles were found, according to the complaint. (Albawaba.com)
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