Weapons Smuggling

A combination vacation and business yachting trip has turned into a nightmare for three Orange County men jailed on suspicion of gun-running during an unscheduled maintenance stop in Cozumel, off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Eugene McClung Jr., 71, owner of Newport Beach-based Certified Marine Expeditions, and two other men have been jailed since early last week after a Mexican federal prosecutor accused them of trying to smuggle two AR-15 semiautomatic rifles "for purposes of insurrection."

A Hamas military commander slain in a Dubai hotel room played a key role in smuggling antiaircraft missiles and other weapons into the Gaza Strip, Israeli and Hamas officials said Sunday. But they disagreed on whether Mahmoud Mabhouh's death would be a blow to Palestinian armed groups in the territory or inspire them to redouble their arms campaign. "This guy was a middleman for smuggling weapons from Iran, not only to Gaza but to Hezbollah" in Lebanon, said an Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issues involved.

DAMASCUS, Syria A Syrian trading company with close ties to the ruling regime smuggled weapons and military hardware to Saddam Hussein between 2000 and 2003, helping Syria become the main channel for illicit arms transfers to Iraq despite a stringent U.N. embargo, documents recovered in Iraq show. The private company, called SES International Corp., is headed by a cousin of Syria's autocratic leader, Bashar Assad, and is controlled by other members of Assad's Baath Party and Alawite clan.

The alleged arms deal involved sit-down meetings in Paris and London, a front company in Kyrgyzstan and shipments via Colombia to the ultimate destination, Iran. But today, the notorious Belgian trafficker charged with arranging the scheme finds himself in a federal jail in Mobile, Ala. U.S. authorities say Jacques Monsieur, a swashbuckling 56-year-old known as "the Fox" and "the Field Marshal," conspired with an undercover agent to buy engines and parts for F-5 fighter planes for Iran.

The scandal at the Bank of Credit & Commerce International has touched off a chain reaction of political recrimination and second-guessing on both sides of the Atlantic. At the core of the debate in Washington and London is this question: Why did political leaders ignore numerous early warning signs that BCCI was involved in a massive illegal enterprise that defrauded depositors, laundered drug money, smuggled weapons and assisted such notorious outlaws as international terrorist Abu Nidal? Sen.

The Bank of Credit & Commerce International handled millions of dollars in illegal arms transactions for Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal in an effort to persuade its wealthy Mideast backers that the bank was staunchly pro-Arab, according to a former high-ranking bank official.

A federal judge sentenced an Acton machinist to 30 months in prison Monday for conspiring with a North Hills couple to unlawfully manufacture and sell machine guns and silencers to a federal agent who posed as a white supremacist. U. S. District Judge Ronald S. W. Lew imposed the sentence on Christopher Berwick, 46, who pleaded guilty in September to federal charges that from May, 1992, to July, 1993, he made as many as 17 Sten machine-gun receiver tubes for machine-gun kits.

When Philippine congressman Nicanor de Guzman flew home to Manila from Los Angeles last week, customs agents found some unusual souvenirs amid his shoes and shirts--314 assorted handguns plus spare parts and ammunition. Mark another case in the California connection, an arms smuggling pipeline in which commercial airlines are increasingly used to smuggle illegal weapons--from snub-nosed revolvers to automatic weapons--into the Philippines.

A sporting goods store in a small northern Pennsylvania town is the unlikely focus of a federal investigation into the suspected reemergence of the global arms transport network controlled by Russian businessman Victor Bout. Federal officials said this week that a recent search of the store near Wilkes-Barre, Pa., sought to learn whether a Bulgarian firm in Bout's business empire was being used to purchase restricted paramilitary items for a company tied to Russia's intelligence agency.

A machinist who pleaded guilty to helping manufacture illegal machine gun parts for sale to a white supremacist group was sentenced Monday to 2 1/2 years in a federal prison. Christopher Berwick, 49, of Santa Clarita was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew, who said it was clear that Berwick had a minor role in a conspiracy to help arm hate groups.

The United Arab Emirates this month seized a cargo ship bound for Iran with a cache of banned arms from North Korea, the first such seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up, diplomats and officials said Friday. The seizure was carried out in accordance with tough new U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea over its nuclear weapons program. Diplomats identified the ship as a Bahamian-flagged cargo vessel, the ANL Australia, and said it was carrying rocket-propelled grenades and other arms.

A government audit of U.S. efforts to stop arms trafficking to Mexico was criticized Friday by a Republican lawmaker who said its conclusion that smuggled weapons from America were fueling the rise of violent Mexican drug cartels was based on incomplete data. The report, released Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, said that the United States lacked a coordinated strategy to stem the flow of smuggled weapons.

The United States lacks a coordinated strategy to stem the flow of weapons smuggled across its southern border, a failure that has fueled the rise of powerful criminal cartels and violence in Mexico, a government watchdog agency report has found. The report by the congressional Government Accountability Office, the first federal assessment of the issue, offered blistering conclusions that will probably influence the debate over the role of U.S.

Israeli warplanes on Saturday bombed tunnels beneath the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, killing two Palestinian men, after militants fired mortar rounds into Israel from the coastal territory, according to the Israeli military and Palestinian medical workers. The men were the first fatalities in the conflict between the militant group Hamas and Israel in nearly two months.

A Sudanese official said Thursday that hundreds of people were killed early this year when foreign warplanes bombed three convoys smuggling African migrants through Sudan along with weapons that apparently were destined for the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted at his air force's possible involvement in the attacks. They came after Israel ended a 22-day assault on Gaza without fully achieving one of its aims: to choke off Hamas' weapons supply.

Russia has foiled an attempt by a group of naval officials to smuggle $18 million worth of anti-submarine missiles and aviation bombs to China, officials said. Russia's chief military prosecutor, Sergei Fridinsky, said the 30 anti-submarine missiles and 200 bombs were seized in Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic that borders China and Afghanistan. Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said the smuggling attempt was uncovered by a joint operation of the military, prosecutors and the FSB federal security service.

A federal judge upheld a jury verdict Monday against Doris Nadal, a North Hills woman who was convicted with her husband last month of conspiring to manufacture and sell illegal weapons to an informant who posed as a white supremacist. U. S. District Court Judge Ronald S. W. Lew denied a defense motion to acquit Doris Nadal or to grant her a new trial. A federal jury convicted Nadal on Oct.

An Acton man pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges that he conspired with two co-defendants to unlawfully manufacture and sell machine guns and silencers in connection with the activities of white supremacists. Christopher Berwick, 49, pleaded guilty just before jury selection was to begin in his trial with co-defendants Christian Nadal and Doris Nadal of North Hills, who are accused of selling the illegal weapons to an undercover FBI agent.

The U.S. military handed security responsibility for Wasit province to Iraqi authorities Wednesday, putting Baghdad in full control of 13 of the country's 18 provinces, including all of those in the mostly Shiite Muslim south. U.S. and Iraqi forces have been jointly seeking to shut down arms smuggling routes from Iran that use Wasit as a transit point before the weapons are taken elsewhere in Iraq. The weapons are thought to be going to Shiite militant groups. U.S.

The U.S. ambassador expressed wariness Sunday about Iranian intentions in Iraq, saying that even if Iran-backed militias had decreased activities here, he was not yet convinced the Islamic state was committed to helping stabilize Iraq. U.S. military officials have cited the recent drop in roadside bombs and mortar and rocket attacks as a sign that Iran, which Washington accuses of fomenting unrest in Iraq, is altering its behavior.