A retired California National Guard lieutenant colonel and a prominent Hmong leader were charged with eight others Monday in an alleged plot to buy missiles, mines, assault rifles and other arms to topple the communist government of Laos.
Among those arrested was Gen. Vang Pao of Westminster, a CIA-backed ally of the United States during the Vietnam War and a leader among Hmong refugees who settled in the state 30 years ago.
Also named in a federal complaint was former Lt. Col. Harrison Ulrich Jack, of Woodland, Calif., who allegedly met with an undercover agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to discuss air-dropping arms into Laos.
Jack acted as a go-between in arranging the arms deals, officials alleged.
Search and arrest warrants also were served in Chico, Calif.; Sacramento and Stockton, as well as in Fresno, where the state's Hmong are concentrated, federal officials said.
During the Vietnam War, Laos was a secret battleground for the United States, which recruited tens of thousands of Hmong to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. After the war, many refugees migrated to California's Central Valley and Minnesota.
The group charged Monday allegedly wanted a total of $9.8 million in arms and had agreed to an initial payment of $150,000, according to the federal complaint filed in Sacramento.
The arms were allegedly to be delivered to a remote location in Thailand and smuggled into Laos later this month. Couriers carrying $10,000 each reportedly had begun moving money to Thailand, where the payments were to be delivered. Though no weapons were delivered, the group allegedly was on the verge of launching a sophisticated plan to overthrow Laos' communist regime.
Among the weapons sought, according to prosecutors, were Stinger missiles, machine guns, anti-tank rockets, claymore mines and rocket-propelled grenades.
Federal agents, who launched the investigation after receiving a tip, had to move quickly because the first arms transaction allegedly was to have been completed next week. During Monday's raids, agents seized $170,000 in cash, as well as financial records and 10 opium plants.
Steve Martin, special agent in charge of the ATF's San Francisco field office, said more arrests could be made.
"We've got to sift through the evidence and see where it takes us," he said. "There's still a lot more to go."
