A lethal cargo of rocket launchers, grenades and other weapons seized in Thailand at the weekend may be just a glimpse of what US and UN investigators say is a global North Korean illegal arms smuggling network used to finance its proscribed nuclear weapons programme.
Authorities in Bangkok said today it was unclear where the plane carrying the 35-tonnes of arms, an Ilyushin IL-76 registered in Georgia, was heading. But suspicion immediately fell on Iran, the destination of a previous illegal weapons shipment impounded in the United Arab Emirates in July. Panitan Wattanayagorn, a Thai government spokesman, said the plane had initially planned to refuel in Sri Lanka. For unknown reasons, the crew asked to make an emergency landing in Bangkok on Friday. Sri Lanka denied any knowledge of the arms shipment. There was also speculation in Bangkok that it was destined for Pakistan or Afghanistan.
Thai officials, who detained four crewmen from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus, said they acted on tip-offs from US and other unnamed intelligence agencies that the plane was carrying North Korean-made weapons in contravention of a UN security council ban on arms exports. The ban was strengthened in June, after North Korea's isolated regime test-fired ballistic missiles and detonated a nuclear bomb.
The cargo, declared in the plane's manifest as oil-drilling equipment, was said to include rocket-propelled grenades, missile and rocket launchers, missile tubes, surface-to-air missile launchers, spare parts and other heavy weapons.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/13/north-korea-arms-smuggling-plane
Six suspected members of a passport forgery gang have been arrested for allegedly trafficking in stolen passports and forging new identities to help international terrorists and criminals.
The Department of Special Investigation says one suspect, identified as Orawan Limprasert, 31, was arrested on Wednesday allegedly with 40 sets of forged documents which were used to forge British passports. An extended investigation led to the arrest of five others - two Thai nationals identified as Wilaiporn Nilnabkaew, 28, and Naowarat Kiyani 43, and three foreigners - Pakistani Asad Zaid Kiyani, a man from Burma's ethnic Rohingya minority identified as Awae, and a suspected member of the Tamil Tiger separatists in Sri Lanka, identified as Ponnudurai.
Seized were more than 300 fake passports from France, Britain and Belgium along with several other forged official documents.
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http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/crimes/29103/six-arrested-in-passport-scam-terror-link-seen
Dallas agents ground helicopter believed to be on way to Iran
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Federal agents in Dallas have grounded a helicopter that they say Italian aircraft brokers were planning to ship from North Texas to Iran in violation of U.S. trade sanctions.
The fate of the $8 million chopper, sitting in a Bell hangar in Arlington, is in limbo while federal agents untangle an international web of circumstances that has already resulted in two other U.S.-manufactured helicopters entering Iran. Agents believe that the aircraft are being used for civilian purposes – to ferry offshore oil workers around – but at least one of them is equipped with sensitive night vision and autopilot capabilities, which are subject to strict U.S. controls.
Both helicopters were bought from a Mexican company and made pit stops in North Texas before heading to Italy, then Iran, documents show.
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