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| Five Years In Drugs-For-Missiles Plot |
| 2006-04-04 |
| SAN DIEGO - A Pakistani man was sentenced on Monday to nearly five years in prison for his role in a plot to obtain and sell Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the Taleban and Al Qaeda. Muhamed Abid Afridi, 32, pleaded guilty in federal court in March 2004 to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and one count of conspiracy to distribute heroin and hashish. Two other men pleaded guilty to the same charges. Sentencing for Syed Mustajab Shah, 57, also of Pakistan, is set for June 19. Ilyas Ali, 58, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in India, is scheduled to be sentenced April 10. Afridi admitted that he tried to sell five tons of hashish and a half-ton of heroin to undercover U.S. law enforcement officials in exchange for cash and four shoulder-fired Stinger missiles, which he and the other defendants intended to sell to members of the Taleban. Such missiles could be used to shoot down airplanes, including commercial jets, flying at low altitudes. Afridi knew at the time of the TalebanÂ’s ties to Al Qaeda, prosecutors said. The defendants were arrested in 2002 by police in Hong Kong. The three had been secretly videotaped in meetings with undercover FBI agents at a Hong Kong hotel. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #5 Among drug dealers in the 70s it was a known fact that $20k would get them a lot of drugs in South America but $20K in weapons would get a whole lot more. Then the problem was how to consumate the deal without the weapons being turned on the dealer afterwards. The interesting twist here is the drugs are delivered in the US. The story doesn't explain where the weapons were to be exchanged. Drug suppliers don't usually show that much savy. By already having smuggled the drugs into the US they could ask for way more weapons per unit of drugs. That should have raised red flags to them. (they were a bit greedy.) If a dealer had weapons to sell, they are easier to export than drugs are to bring in. A sharp dealer would have just made the deal in Pakistan. (His return would have been so much better.) They were idiots that they didn't suspect this. (maybe using their product?) |
| Posted by: 3dc 2006-04-04 17:04 |
| #4 According to the article, two of the gentlemen in question are Pakistainis, one a naturalized American citizen of Indian extraction. As I recall, all three were settled in the U.S. with their families at the time of the arrests. So, five years in the calaboose, followed by immediate deportation, along with the families no longer having visible means of support. The wives and children (not to mention the extended family whose lives had been so much more comfortable on the remittances they'd been receiving from their Stateside relative these many years), deprived forever of the lifestyle to which they were happily accustomed, should be enough to make the gentlemen long for their prison days the rest of their sorry lives. Not that I'm feeling vidindictive or anything. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-04-04 11:54 |
| #3 Let's hope he really spilled his guts to get a deal like this. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2006-04-04 10:22 |
| #2 I'm with you Army Guy. What the hell, over? |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2006-04-04 09:13 |
| #1 5 YEARS ?????????????????????????????? five tons of hashish and a half-ton of heroin sell Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the Taleban and Al Qaeda |
| Posted by: ARMYGUY 2006-04-04 08:50 |