Prosecutor: FBI Sting Stopped Arms Dealers

NEW YORK -- An Armenian immigrant accused of plotting to sell military weapons to an FBI informant posing as an arms dealer went on trial Wednesday with a prosecutor saying he was greedy for a fast buck and his defense lawyer saying he merely wanted a green card.

Artur Solomonyan and five others were accused of agreeing to obtain deadly weapons from those who knew what happened to weapons in the former Soviet Union, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Massey said.

"The defendants saw these deadly weapons as a way to make a quick buck," Massey said.

An indictment accused Solomonyan and others of conspiring between December 2003 and March 2005 to import shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank guided missiles and machine guns without a license.

When prosecutors first announced the case, they said the FBI agent was posing as a middleman for terrorists. But Massey made no mention of that Wednesday.

Massey said the jury in U.S. District Court in Manhattan would hear the defendants using code words to refer to weapons on some of the thousands of tape-recorded telephone calls captured by the government during its investigation.

He said the arms delivered in New York, Los Angeles and Miami before the men were arrested included eight assault weapons, a machine gun and three high-powered rifles.

Solomonyan lawyer Seth Ginsberg said his client knew nothing about importing weapons when a government informant dangled the possibility of getting a green card to stay in the United States if he could arrange some weapons sales.

He said Solomonyan had no intention of importing weapons but just wanted to string along the informant long enough to get a green card.

"If the world had more arms dealers like Artur Solomonyan, the world would be a much safer place," Ginsberg said.

He said his client produced an outdated price list for weapons as a way to keep the informant working on his green card.

The trial was delayed once before when the government informant, Kelly Davis, was hospitalized with stomach and chest pains and put on suicide watch.

Massey said the case began when one of the defendants approached Davis to ask about the sale of machine guns.

The prosecutor said Davis reported the offer to law enforcement, which initiated an investigation as Davis began making recordings, generating hundreds of pages of reports.

Solomonyan was charged with arms trafficking conspiracy, firearms trafficking conspiracy, interstate firearms trafficking and illegal transfer and possession of a machine gun in March 2005. If convicted, some defendants could face up to life in prison.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/March05/rpgpressrelease.pdf

EXCERPT:

DAVID N. KELLEY, the United States Attorney for

the Southern District of New York, PASQUALE D’AMURO, the

Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Office of the FBI,

and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the New York City Police Commissioner,

announced today the unsealing of a complaint in Manhattan federal

court charging 18 individuals with various weapons trafficking

offenses, including a scheme to smuggle rocket propelled grenade

launchers (“RPGs”), shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles

(“SAMs”), and other Russian military weapons into the United

States for sale. In addition, the defendants are also charged

with conspiring to traffic in machineguns and other similar

assault weapons, and in fact sold eight such weapons during the

course of the investigation. The arrests are the result of a

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year-long investigation that utilized a confidential informant

(“CI”) who posed as an arms trafficker selling weapons to

terrorists. The FBI’s investigation also included court-

authorized wiretaps on seven different phones and interceptions

of more than 15,000 calls.

Specifically, the 61-page federal complaint unsealed

today in Manhattan federal court charges ARTUR SOLOMONYAN,

CHRISTIAAN DEWET SPIES, IOSEB KHARABADZE, JOSEPH COLPANI, and

MICHAEL GUY DEMARE with conspiring to transport destructive

devices in interstate and foreign commerce. The complaint also

charges 13 other individuals with weapons trafficking for their

roles in supplying SOLOMONYAN and SPIES with machineguns and

other assault weapons, which were then sold to the CI.

The Complaint alleges that SOLOMONYAN and SPIES, with

the help of KHARABADZE, COLPANI, DEMARE, and other unidentified

co-conspirators were actively preparing to import RPGs, SAMs,

anti-tank missile systems, and other military weapons into the

country from Eastern Europe. The CI, it is alleged, had multiple

conversations with SOLOMONYAN and SPIES over the course of the

conspiracy in which the CI indicated that his clients were

terrorists.

According to the Complaint, SOLOMONYAN and SPIES met

with the CI on several occasions in New York City to discuss the

details of their weapons deals, including in-depth discussions of

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the specifications and prices of various weapons that the

defendants could ship into the United States. The Complaint

alleges that, in June 2004, at a meeting in New York City,

SOLOMONYAN provided the CI with a list of weapons for sale that

included RPGs, stinger missiles, AK-47s, and claymore mines. The

Complaint also details numerous telephone calls between the

defendants discussing the inner workings of their plot to bring

weapons into the country. For example, the Complaint alleges

that in January 2005, SPIES spoke on the phone with COLPANI about

providing the CI with an RPG. According to the Complaint, as

recently as late January 2005, SOLOMONYAN discussed importing 200

RPGs from Armenia for sale to the CI.

Most recently, in late February 2005, SOLOMONYAN and

SPIES provided the CI with digital photos of military weapons in

Armenia that they proposed to import into the U.S. for sale to

the CI. The CI was given the name of a Russian website, a user

name, and a password in order to access the 17 digital photos of

the weapons. These photos, which FBI forensics has determined

were taken in late February 2005, included such weapons as two

SA-7b Strella Surface to Air Heat Seeking Anti-Aircraft Missiles;

a Russian AT-4 Spigot Anti-Tank Guided Missile and Launcher; a

120 mm mortar launcher; Russian 73 mm recoilless anti-tank guns;

and fully automatic AK-74 and AKS assault rifles, according to

the Complaint.

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SOLOMONYAN and SPIES were arrested last night after

meeting one last time with the CI to finalize their plans to

travel to Eastern Europe to arrange the importation of the

military weapons. The FBI arrested them before they could travel

outside of the U.S. to obtain the weapons. The FBI is currently

working with Armenian and Russian authorities to secure the

weapons and to arrest the responsible parties abroad.

According to the Complaint, while SOLOMONYAN and SPIES

were actively arranging the importation of the military weapons

from Eastern Europe, they also sold machineguns and assault

weapons to the CI. Utilizing the services of various weapons

traffickers in New York City, Los Angeles, and Florida, the

defendants provided the CI with eight weapons and conspired to

sell the CI many more. As alleged in the Complaint, each weapon

was delivered by the defendants to storage facilities rented by

the FBI on the CI’s behalf. On several occasions, SOLOMONYAN or

SPIES was surveilled delivering the weapons to various storage

locations. Of the eight weapons, three were delivered in New

York City, three were delivered in Los Angeles, and two were

delivered in Fort Lauderdale. The weapons sold to the CI include

an SKS fully-automatic assault rifle; a Norinco Model NHM91; an

Israel Military Industries Model A Uzi; an Interdynamic Model KG-

9; a Norinco AK-47; a Norinco MA-90 Sporter; an AK-47 made by GN

Romarm SA/Cugir; and an AK-47, BA 36 0543, Arsenal, as well as

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two conversion kits intended to convert both AK-47's into fully-

automatic machineguns.

The original story Guardian carried:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4868430,00.html
No Longer Live.

See Way Back When Machine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20050411120649/http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4868430,00.html

Immigrant Accused of Weapons-Smuggle Plot

NEW YORK (AP) - Federal prosecutors charged Tuesday that a 26-year-old Armenian immigrant led a plot to sell military weapons to an FBI informant posing as a middleman for terrorists.

(snip)

U.S. Attorney David Kelley said in an interview Tuesday that
Solomonyan, his South African partner, Christiaan Dewet Spies, and

(snip)

Solomonyan entered the United States six years ago on a cultural exchange visa claiming he was a religious worker for the Church of Scientology, according to law enforcement officials, also speaking on condition of anonymity. He was living on the proceeds of Medicare fraud and other scams as he carried out the weapons scheme, the officials said.

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