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Arms sent to terrorist stronghold
By TIMOTHY O'CONNOR
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: July 1, 2005)

WHITE PLAINS — The wea-pons that a Yonkers man admitted he illegally shipped overseas went to a gun shop he owned in a terrorist hotbed teeming with armed insurgents.

Fernando Sero, 35, pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to illegally sending fully automatic parts for AK-47 and AR-15 assault rifles to the island of Mindanao in the Philippines in March.

"He sold the weapons to any willing buyer," Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry Carbone said during Sero's court hearing. Those willing buyers could have included members of the Abu Sayyaf Group and Jemaah Islamiyah — both associated with al-Qaida. Communist guerrillas and members of a Muslim separatist insurgency group called the Moro Islamic Liberation Front also would have been in the market for weapons.

The U.S. ambassador to the Philippines recently told an Australian news program that Mindanao was becoming like Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"It's one of the most ungovernable places in the world," said Angel Rabasa, a senior policy analyst with the Rand Corp., who has written extensively about security issues in Southeast Asia. "Mindanao is like an armed camp. It is awash in weapons."

Sero was arrested following a domestic violence incident March 25 at his home on Rugby Road. He held a gun to his wife's head, then released her and engaged in a standoff with Yonkers police before surrendering, police said.

But federal authorities were already investigating Sero. He was indicted five days after his arrest on charges that he illegally shipped weapons to Mindanao on four separate occasions dating from September 2003. The most recent shipment was three days before his arrest in the domestic violence case.

His family lives in a compound on the heavily armed island and Sero, a naturalized U.S. citizen, made frequent trips back there, authorities said. But those trips weren't just to see family. Sero shipped the guns to an arms shop he owned on the island, federal authorities said.

Sero used a false name, Ferdie Resada, and falsified airway bills to send the shipments of automatic weapons, authorities said. Sero and his wife, a medical professional, have lived in the house on Rugby Road for a little more than a year, along with their young son, neighbors said.

Sero's lawyer, Richard Willstatter of White Plains, did not return calls seeking comment. Sero faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $1 million fine when he is sentenced Sept. 29.