A German businessman has been arrested by United States customs agents in Arizona and accused of exporting parts for military aircraft to Iran using a freight company based in the Queens neighborhood of New York, according to the New York Times on Sunday.
The suspect was identified as Gunter Kohlke, 64. He was arrested on Thursday after a two-year undercover operation involving customs agents and commerce department investigators in Tucson, New York and other US cities, officials said.
Dean Boyd, a customs service spokesman, said that agents considered Kohlke "a very significant target" because he was believed to have been exporting military equipment from the United States for more than a decade.
Customs officials were quoted as saying that they had started investigating Kohlke after a tip from a Tucson business in early 1999. An agent then posed as an aircraft-parts supplier. That operation and further work by federal agents in New York City resulted in an 11-count felony indictment by a federal grand jury in Brooklyn on June 28.
Citing the indictment, the paper said that Kohlke is charged with conspiracy. He is alleged to have been illegally exporting gearshafts and machine gun parts for military helicopters through New York to his company in Switzerland, Aircraft Components AG. Prosecutors said that he would then send the parts to Iran.
The alleged operations were carried out between 1996 and 1999.
According to the indictment, Kohlke used a Queens freight-forwarding company, Modern Aire Expeditors, to ship the parts to Switzerland. But prosecutors have not suggested that Modern Aire knowingly conspired in any crime. The company was not available for comment when contacted by the daily.
In addition to conspiracy charges, Kohlke has been charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act, which requires exporters to obtain a license to ship such components from the United States, and the Emergency Economic Powers Act, which prohibits most commercial exports to Iran.
Kyle Barnett, an assistant special agent for the customs service in Tucson, said Kohlke was arrested on Thursday after undercover agents persuaded him to meet with them, ostensibly on business, before a planned trip to Florida.
"He flew into the US from Switzerland to attend an air show, and we were able to persuade him to come and meet with us," Barnett told the Arizona Daily Star when the indictment was unsealed Friday.
Kohlke is being held in Tucson pending a court hearing on Tuesday. He will be transferred to New York before facing trial, according to the report.
Customs officials said that the source of the tip, a Tucson-based company that has not been named, alerted agents to Kohlke's activities after he asked the business to test several gearshafts for a Chinook CH-47 military helicopter. They said the request was suspicious because it was for an older model that is no longer used by United States forces.
Washington plans to go ahead with a $60 billion missile plan in order to protect American interests from attack by Iran and other so-called rogue states such as North Korea and Libya – Albawaba.com
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