Armenian authorities arrest three men in connection with U.S. smuggling case
By AVET DEMOURIAN
AP Worldstream
Mar 21, 2005
Armenian authorities have arrested three men in connection with an
alleged plot uncovered by U.S. authorities to smuggle Russian military
weapons into the United States, a top security official said Monday.
The three suspects allegedly worked with Artur Solomonyan, an Armenian
who was among 18 people charged by U.S. authorities earlier this month
in an alleged scheme to smuggle grenade launchers, shoulder-fired
missiles and other Russian military weapons into the United States,
said Grach Arutyunian, a National Security Service official.
He said no weapons have been smuggled out of Armenia, where the
Russian military has a base, and there was no evidence indicating
Russian soldiers were involved in the scheme.
Arutyunian said the three suspects arrested in Armenia _ Spartak
Elibekian, Armen Barekamian and Grigor Martirosian _ had helped take
digital pictures of weapons at Solomonyan’s request at an Armenian
military base. A check has shown that no weapons have been smuggled
from the base, Arutyunian told reporters.
He didn’t say when the arrests were made.
The arrests of suspects in the United States resulted from a year-long
investigation in which an FBI informant posed as an arms buyer who
claimed to have ties to al-Qaida. Using a digital camera, members
of the ring, which included Armenians and South Africans, provided
pictures of the weapons they said they had available for sale,
prosecutors said.