Posted on 08/03/2002 3:07:36 PM PDT by knighthawk
ROME (Reuters) - Italian police have arrested a man suspected of having links to arms trafficking and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network for travelling on a false passport, according to a police spokesman.
Police acting on a tip-off, arrested Sanjivan Ruprah, 36, in the northern town of Cremona, outside Milan, on Friday. He was travelling on a false Belgian passport, the spokesman said on Saturday.
"Sanjivan Ruprah is an internationally known figure," he said. "He is known as an international trafficker of arms and diamonds and has already been arrested in Belgium, from where he was released on bail."
Kenyan-born Ruprah's name appears on a list published by the United Nations in 1999 of people banned from international flights because of links to arms and diamond trafficking in Africa.
The Washington Post reported in February that Ruprah had been secretly providing U.S. and European investigators with information about a Russian associate Victor Bout, who was suspected of supplying weapons to al Qaeda.
Wow, it took the Italians a whole year to catch there first real terrorist. It just happenes to be one suppling us with intell.
Makes you wonder what is going on.
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