U.S Customs arrest Pak duo for smuggling spy cameras

U.S Customs arrest Pak duo for smuggling spy cameras
Chidanand Rajghatta

WASHINGTON, JAN 25: The United States Customs Service has arrested a Pakistani duo and charged them with conspiring to smuggle sophisticated spy cameras to government labs in Pakistan.

The arrests followed a four-month undercover investigation code-named Operation Raven by American customs and defence intelligence operatives inBaltimore, Kansas City and Germany, Customs officials said. Following the sting, officials arrested Tanzeem A. Khan, a naturalised U.S. citizen, and his brother, Tauquir A. Khan, a Pakistani citizen who attended Iowa State University on a student visa, for allegedly falsifying shipping documents to say the equipment were destined for Germany.

According to a criminal complaint unsealed on Wednesday, the Khans were attempting to export to Pakistan pan-tilt-zoom cameras and other componentsfor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). When installed in UAVs or ``drones,''these cameras can be used for spotting enemy targets and for other forms of military surveillance and reconnaissance.

The defendants actually planned to ship the cameras to the Advanced Engineering Research Organisation in Pakistan.

``The sophisticated items sought by these individuals are used for battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance,'' Allan Doody, the Customs Special Agent-in-Charge in Baltimore said in a statement. ``Preventing illegal military exports to global hotspots is a top priority for U.S. Customs.''

According to the complaint, the conspiracy began in April 2000 when the brothers contacted BAI Aerosystems, a Maryland manufacturer of UAVs and UAV components, and requested that the firm make two pan-tilt-zoom cameras (costing $ 13,000 each) and other UAV items for export to Pakistan.

Because the cameras were listed under U.S. Munitions List, BAI needed to register the order with the State Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls (ODTC) and obtain an export license, a procedure that BAI complied with while starting work on the order. But in October 2000, the ODTC denied BAI the export license.

According to the complaint, the Khan brothers then told BAI they still wanted the requested items and promised additional orders for pan-tilt-zoom cameras. At this point, BAI executives tipped off the Defense Department's Defense Security Service, which, in turn, notified U.S. Customs.

Customs agents in Baltimore launched a sting operation, posing as rogue suppliers of UAV cameras. Daniel Supnick, a Customs agent in Baltimore, began working as an undercover representative for BAI, and over the next few months, tape-recorded at least 52 conversations with the Khans.

During these conversations, the brothers conspired to route the restricted cameras through Germany to Pakistan even after being told that the shipmentswould be illegal, the complaint alleges. In one conversation, Supnick reportedly told Tanzeem Khan: ``Basically, what we are doing is illegal.'' Khan allegedly replied: ``Yes, I understand that.''

The brothers also tried to bribe their way through the transgression, paying Supnick $25,000 to purchase the cameras and forward export documents to a Maryland shipping company stating that data-processing equipment worth $3,000 was to be shipped ``to an end user in Germany.''

The latest episode conforms to a familiar pattern of Pakistani scientific and defence establishments smuggling and stealing military secrets from the west. Last September, a British citizen pleaded guilty in a federal court in Boston to violating the Arms Export Control Act by trying to ship night-vision goggles and helicopter parts to Pakistan.

According to reports here, Federal officials are also investigating whether Raytheon Co. attempted to circumvent sanctions imposed on Pakistan by agreeing to sell a $40 million commercial communications system through its Canadian subsidiary.