Bmore:Indonesian rebel army look 4 guns in md

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Alleged Arms Brokers for terrorist group charged

Suspects accused of trying to buy weapons in Md. for Tamil Tigers organization
By Brian Witte
The Associated Press
Originally published September 29, 2006, 3:24 PM EDT

Arms brokers for the Tamil Tiger terrorist group are charged with trying to buy missiles and other weapons through undercover agents in Maryland, along with arms dealers who tried to get military equipment for the Indonesian Army, federal officials said today.

Haji Subandi, a suspected international arms dealer from Indonesia, was at the center of two conspiracies to buy weapons and other military equipment, said U.S. Attorney Rod Rosenstein.

"The common tie between the two conspiracies is that members of both conspiracies dealt with a suspected international arms dealer named Haji Subandi, who acted as a broker and arranged for military equipment to be purchased," Rosenstein said at a news conference in Baltimore.

The Tamil Tigers are a rebel group that began fighting in 1983 for a separate state on the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka. The group was added to the U.S. State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations in 1997. The designation bars the group from raising money, obtaining weaponry or lobbying for support in the United States.

In one conspiracy, Subandi made numerous requests to the undercover agents between March 2004 and April 2006 on behalf of Tamil Tigers to acquire night-vision goggles, special forces weaponry, communication devices, sonar technology and unmanned aerial vehicles, according to a federal indictment.

Subandi, 69, has been charged with Haniffa Bin Osman, 55, and Erick Wotulo, 60, in a three-count indictment unsealed today. They are charged with conspiracy to export arms and munitions, conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, and money laundering.

Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa, 36, of Sri Lanka, also is charged with being part of the conspiracy.

Wotulo, who identified himself to undercover agents as a retired Indonesian Marine Corps general, submitted a purchase order in June to a dummy business set up by U.S. investigators for weapons totaling about $3 million, authorities said. Osman told undercover agents that if the first order was successful, a second order could be worth as much as $15 million.

In another conspiracy, Subandi is charged with conspiracy to violate the arms export control act, along with Reinhard Rusli, 34, and Helmi Soedirdja, 33. The three are Indonesian citizens. They allegedly conspired to ship night-vision goggles and a holographic weapons sight to customers in Indonesia, according to the indictment.

All the men were arrested Thursday and today in Guam, where they met to examine the weapons, which weighed 3.5 tons and filled up 14 pallets in a truck, said Mark Bastan, acting special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Baltimore.

"They had a plan to ship these weapons from Guam to members to the Tamil Tigers in the Indian Ocean, where they would then be used for their terrorist purposes," Rosenstein said.

The weapons waiting for them included grenade launchers, submachine guns, sniper rifles and night-vision devices, Bastan said.

Bastan said the weapons were intended to be used against the Sri Lankan government, but it was unclear whether they were to be used for a specific attack.

Authorities said that among the weapons Osman sought to purchase were surface-to-air missiles.

"The indictment quotes one defendant as saying that the Stinger missiles were for the Tamil Tigers to use in downing Israeli aircraft flown by Israeli pilots in Sri Lanka for the Sri Lankan Air Force," Bastan said.

Under the operation initiated by ICE, investigators posed as arms dealers, wining and dining Osman when he came to Baltimore in July to work out the deal. Investigators even took him to the Havre de Grace police department's firing range near the Susquehanna River to test some of the guns.

"We just took the police signs off" the range, Bastan said, describing the set up.

Last month, U.S. officials in New York announced that eight emissaries of the rebel group had conspired to buy surface-to-air missiles in the United States amid an escalating conflict with military forces in Sri Lanka. The men charged in that case also tried to get the Tamil Tigers removed from a list of terrorist organizations and sought to bribe U.S. officials for classified information, according to a criminal complaint.

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6 arms dealers face additional charges
Men charged with attempting to export high-tech weapons to Tamil Tigers
Originally published October 3, 2006, 4:34 PM EDT

Six men who paid undercover customs agents in Maryland hundreds of thousands of dollars to ship restricted, high-tech weapons to rebels in Sri Lanka and the Indonesian Army are facing additional charges, federal prosecutors announced today.

Both superceding indictments involve Haji Subandi, a suspected international arms dealer from Indonesia.

One adds Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa, 36, to the original indictment of Haniffa Bin Osman, Erick Wotulu and Subandi. The Sri Lankan national was originally charged in Guam last week by a criminal complaint.

The superseding indictment adds money laundering; weapons export and firearms possession charges to the original indictment. The additional charges involve the transfer of $425,000 from Malaysia to Baltimore on Sept. 28 and the attempted export of machine guns, grenade launchers, sniper rifles and pistols.

The other indictment adds conspiracy to export defense articles, attempted export and money laundering charges related to night vision goggles which were checked in their luggage onto a flight headed to Indonesia.

Osman, 55, of Singapore, waived his right to an identity hearing on Guam, according to a report Monday in the Pacific Daily News. That cleared the way for U.S. Magistrate Judge Joaquin Manibusan to sign a removal order that would send Osman to Maryland.

The six were arrested last week in the two separate cases.

The men had met to examine 3 1/2 tons of weapons in transit through the U.S. territory, including Stinger missiles, grenade launchers, submachine guns, sniper rifles and night-vision devices.

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2 plead guilty in Md. arms operation
Men sought high-tech weapons for rebels in Indonesia, Sri Lanka
By Matthew Dolan
Sun Reporter
Originally published January 30, 2007

Two of the half-dozen men charged with paying undercover customs agents in Maryland to export restricted, high-tech weapons to rebels in Sri Lanka and the Indonesian Army pleaded guilty today in a federal courtroom in Baltimore.

Dressed in prison clothing, Reinhard Rusli, 34, and Helmi Soedirdja, 33, both citizens of Indonesia, entered guilty pleas to money laundering and attempting to illegally export arms.

During a hearing that lasted less than an hour, the men politely answered questions from the judge, affirming that they understood the consequences of their pleas and believed that their lawyers had done a sufficient job in representing their interests.

Prosecutors accused Rusli and Soedirdja of contacting undercover agents to acquire monocular night vision and holographic weapons sight devices that they indicated would be used by the Indonesian military.

On Aug. 31, 2006, court papers say that the defendants wired $2,950 from Indonesia to the United States to obtain a monocular night vision device and holographic weapons sight. The restricted military technology cannot be exported without a license or written authorization from the State Department.

The pair arrived in Guam from Indonesia on Sept. 21, court papers show. Shortly after, they met with undercover agents to examine the night vision devices, according to prosecutors. Authorities said that the Indonesian men also discussed the future acquisition of additional military use technology items.

"Satisfied with the night vision device and holographic weapons sight, Rusli and Soedirdja placed the items in their luggage and traveled to the airport in Guam to return to Indonesia," the Maryland U.S. Attorney's office wrote in a statement. "They were detained at the airport by [American immigration] agents and the devices were recovered from their luggage."

Rusli and Soedirdja each face a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release and a $500,000 fine for money laundering and 10 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release and a $1 million fine for attempted exportation of arms.

But according to the terms of their plea agreement and comments from the presiding judge today, the likely prison term for Rusli and Soedirdja will be between about four and five years. Lawyers in the case agreed that U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake would be able to consider additional evidence -- and could impose an even lighter prison term -- at the sentencing hearing scheduled for April 27.

The elaborate sting operation that nabbed Rusli and Soedirdja took center stage in Baltimore last summer, where federal agents put up a Singapore arms broker at a four-star Inner Harbor hotel, arranged for him to attend religious services at a mosque in Laurel and took him to a shooting range in Harford County so he could test-fire machine guns they said he was interested in illegally buying.

The ruse, authorities said, led representatives for the Tamil Tigers insurgents in Sri Lanka to deposit $700,000 with undercover agents as a down payment for millions of dollars in sniper rifles, submachine guns and grenade launchers. The arms dealers also inquired about unmanned air vehicles and buying surface-to-air missiles to shoot down Israeli-built aircraft in Sri Lanka, according to federal court papers.

The four remaining defendants who have pleaded not guilty -- Haniffa Bin Osman, 55, of Singapore; Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa, 36, of Sri Lanka; and Erick Wotulo, 60, Haji Subandi, 69, both of Indonesia -- remain in federal custody pending their joint trial scheduled for May.