Posted on 03/15/2005 10:57:21 AM PST by Wolfstar
Link to FR thread with the related news report: freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1363252/posts
United States Attorney David Kelley announced today that charges were filed against 18 individuals for various weapons trafficking offenses, including a scheme to smuggle rocket-propelled grenade launchers, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles and other Russian military weapons into the U.S. for sale. Kelley said the first arrests were made in New York Monday night, and were quickly followed with arrests in Miami and Los Angeles, among other places. The smuggling ring included Armenians, South Africans and people from the former Soviet state of Georgia.
The defendants brought AK-47s and an Uzi into the country, and delivered them to storage facilities in various locations, Kelley said. At that point an "even broader scheme" evolved to smuggle heat-seeking SAMs, anti-tank missiles and fully automatic assault rifles, among other weapons, at a cost of more than $2 million, Kelley said.
One defendant suggested he could obtain enriched uranium for use in an attack on the New York subway, Kelley said, but authorities never found any evidence that that was true.
Some of the suspects:
Shawn Jones is driven by federal agents from FBI Headquarters, Tuesday, March 15, 2005, in New York.
Joseb Kharabadze is led in handcuffs by federal agents from FBI Headquarters.
Justice McQueen is led in handcuffs by federal agents from FBI Headquarters.
Vato Machitidze is led in handcuffs by federal agents.
For California FReepers, note that some of the suspects were arrested in Los Angeles. I worry that we on the West Coast have become complacent about the possibility of terrorism here, thinking that the East Coast is the prime target.
California ping...
Don't forget Al Qaeda planned on blowing up part of LAX during the millennium celebrations and that 9/11 was originally planned as a two-part assault on both sides of the country.
Good point wolfstar. We need to be ever vigilant but the state is fiddling while Rome is burning...
oh yeah - Ping!
sounds like some of them were street thugs who watched Scarface too many times and were caught trying to act "big time".
But LA didn't vote for Bush, right? So according to Osama, you should be just fine /s
San Francisco was a major Al Qaeda target in the Bojinka plot initiated in the Philippines.
Where are all the FReepers who insisted non-Muslim terrorists could never ally with Muslim terrorists? While some of the arrestees might very well be Muslim, I'll bet not all of them are.
I agree. I think we here in CA think like teenagers.....It won't happen to us. Was surprised to hear that Armenians were involved. Being 1/2 Armenian, my grandparents had a hard life because of the Genocide. You'd think they would know better. They should have remembered their herritage!
Oops herritage=heritage
The Blue states are the real targets alright!! They will be staging their equipment there, with the help of some Kerry supports no doubt! Then they will turn on them when they have served their purpose. The Rot from within continues to grow.
Scumbags-on-parade Bump.
I agree .. They ignore it even though in some of the terrorist plans found in Iraq - Los Angeles was always included in places to stage attacks.
Hmmmm? It appears to me that the ROT is being arrested.
Similar goals creates some very dissimilar allies.
If you believe they "Got them all" or that this is the "final attempt", You are just kidding yourself!
Did I say that ..?? Did I even imply that ..??
But .. at least with the Patriot Act we are now able to ARREST SOME OF THIS ROT!!
AND .. HOW MANY LIVES WERE SAVED TODAY ..?? IT COULD HAVE BEEN THOUSANDS or HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS.
I hope they catch them all.
I haven't forgotten, but I think most of the 30,000,000 or so Californians have -- if they ever knew about it in the firt place.
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