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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.

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Chemical & Biological
Weapons

1.Introduction
2.Use of Chemical & Biological Agents in
Suicide Bombings
3.Planned Chemical Warhead for
Qassam Missile
4.Bromine Found in Ramallah Mukatah
Compound
5.References
6.Return to Homepage

[Introduction]

Hamas first added pesticides and
poisonous chemicals to indigenously
produced bombs in 1997.

Various other Palestinian terrorist
elements have also attempted to
contaminate Israeli water sources and
agricultural exports with chemical and
biological agents.

In 1999, Israeli security forces
apprehended a Hamas terrorist ring
active in the recruitment of Palestinian
biology and chemistry students as part of
an attempt to form a non-conventional
weapons effort against Israel.

In July 2004, Shin Bet Chief Avi Dichter
noted that non-conventional weapons
may have been smuggled into the PA. In
December 2004, the Israeli defense
establishment expressed concern over the
possibility of a chemical or biological
attack by Palestinian terrorist groups. 1

[Use of Chemical & Biological Agents
in Suicide Bombings]

In December 2001, the Israeli Health
Ministry revealed that nails and bolts
found in a bomb detonated by a
Palestinian suicide bomber had been
dipped in rat poison. According to Hamas,
planting poisonous chemicals in explosive
devices have terrorized Israelis more
effectively than conventional bombings. In
January 2002, a senior Israeli security
source warned that Hamas may be
attempting to obtain sarin and other
nerve gases. 2

[Planned Chemical Warhead for
Qassam Missile]

In February 2002, Middle East Newsline
reported that Palestinian terrorist
elements were developing a chemical
warhead for the Qassam-class missile. 3

[Bromine Found in Ramallah Mukatah
Compound]

During Operation Defensive Shield (April
2002), the IDF seized 10 tubes of bromine
in the Ramallah Mukatah compound.
Bromine, a brownish-red liquid, is a
corrosive element that dissolves human
tissue - even at a concentration of one
per million. 4

[References]

1."Israel Fears Chemical Attack by Hamas
Suicide Bombers," The Times of London,
January 2, 2002; "Dr. Danny Shoham - BESA
Center Expert on Chemical and Biological
Weapons Takes Center Stage," BESA Bulletin,
no. 14, May 2002; "Shin Bet Chief Concerned
Over Non-Conventional Warfare Reaching the
PA," IsraelNationalNews," July 21, 2004; Eitan
Rabin, "Classified Report Obtained by NRG
Maariv Reveals Defense Officials Also
Concerned Palestinian Terror Groups Might Try
to Perpetrate WMD Attacks," NRG Ma'ariv
(English edition), December 8, 2004.

2."Israel fears Chemical Attack by Hamas
Suicide Bombers," The Times of London,
January 2, 2002; "Hamas Says [it put]
Chemicals in Bombs," Associated Press,
December 12, 2001.

3."Hamas Claims Kassam will be Tipped with
CW," MENL, Feb. 28, 2002.

4."IDF Finds 12 Liters of Poisonous Bromine
Hidden in Arafat's Ramallah Compound,"
IMRA, April 19, 2002; Gal Luft, "From
Clandestine Army to Guardians of Terror: The
Palestinian Security Forces and the Second
Intifada," Nativ (Online), Vol. 4, June 2004.

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