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Weapons Dealer Accused of Supplying Terror Group

NEW YORK — A wealthy international arms dealer who once “considered himself untouchable” sought to supply millions of dollars in weapons to Colombian rebels to attack American forces there, U.S. officials said Friday.

A federal indictment unsealed in New York charged Monzer al-Kassar, 61, with conspiring to support terrorists and kill U.S. soldiers. The Syrian weapons dealer was arrested on Thursday in Spain.

U.S. officials said undercover agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration had convinced al-Kassar, previously accused of arming militants from Iraq to Somalia, that they represented the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a rebel army classified in the United States as a terrorist group.

In a series of recorded phone calls, e-mails and meetings, al-Kassar and the agents struck a fictitious $8 million deal for him to supply surface-to-air missile systems, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, thousands of machine guns and tons of explosives obtained in Romania and Bulgaria, officials said. About $400,000 was wired to Spain from New York as a down payment.

Al-Kassar and his cohorts were told the missile systems were “intended to take down U.S. helicopters,” U.S. Attorney Michael Garcia said at a news conference.

Though no weapons exchanged hands, the defendants believed “the arms deal was absolutely real,” the prosecutor said. “They demonstrated their willingness to support a terrorist organization and their capacity to do so.”

The defendant, a longtime resident of Spain, was captured at Madrid’s Barajas airport after he arrived on a flight from the southern resort city of Malaga, officials said. On Friday, investigators searched his palatial home in Marbella, near Malaga.

“Someone who considered himself untouchable is now sitting in a jail in Spain,” said Karen Tandy, the DEA administrator.

Two other men indicted in Manhattan’s U.S. District Court, Tareq Mousa al Ghazi and Luis Filipe Moreno Godoy, were arrested in Romania, officials said.

The indictment said al-Kassar has provided weapons and military equipment to violent factions in Nicaragua, Brazil, Cyprus, Bosnia, Croatia, Somalia, Iran and Iraq. His customers included known terrorist organizations determined to stage “attacks on United States interests and United States nationals,” it said.

Profits were laundered through bank accounts around Europe.

The Colombian revolutionary group, known FARC, has committed “bombings, massacres, kidnappings and other acts of violence within Colombia,” and is “the world’s largest supplier of cocaine,” the indictment said.

Although FARC commanders have in the past declared U.S. military officials in Colombia “military targets,” the rebel group has avoided attacking either American personnel stationed in the country or offices such as embassies or consulates.

Al-Kassar is also reportedly on the Iraqi government’s most-wanted list for allegedly arming insurgents, and has been accused of aiding militants in many of the world’s bloodiest conflicts.

He stood trial in Spain in 1995 on charges he supplied assault rifles used by Palestinian militants in the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985, but was acquitted for lack of evidence. The hijackers killed 69-year-old New Yorker Leon Klinghoffer, dumping his body and wheelchair overboard.

On Friday, al-Kassar went before another Spanish judge. There were no immediate details on extradition proceedings, though Spain and the United States do have an extradition treaty that applies in such cases.

If convicted, al-Kassar faces a possible life sentence.