Last Tuesday, U.S. authorities arrested members of an international arms smuggling ring including nationals of Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Eastern European countries and South Africa. Most of the detainees resided in the USA, some of them illegally. Law enforcers named Armenian Artur Solomonyan, 26, as the ringleader.
The authorities charged 18 individuals with conspiring to smuggle shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile systems, grenade launchers, mortars and other weapons into the USA.
"In the course of the talks Solomonyan told a potential buyer that the weapons would be shipped by sea and delivered to the ports of Los Angeles, New York and Miami. After the two sides have agreed on the price, quantity and models of weapons the latter were to be delivered within two months," the source from the New York Attorney's Office told RIA Novosti.
According to him, when the FBI informer who had posed as an arms buyer said he was willing to purchase 10-15 shoulder-fired grenade launchers during his first meeting with Solomonyan, the latter answered that he and his partners were not interested in selling small shipments of arms but wanted to sell a batch of two thousand pieces in one go.
The source said that after the first meeting which took place in a restaurant the two men met again later in a sauna where Solomonyan said that he was to obtain the grenade launchers from some former and acting military officers in Chechnya. In subsequent telephone conversations Solomonyan said that he could get the weapons from three different and unrelated sources.
The FBI spokesman Andy Arena pointed out at a press conference on Tuesday that the detainees did not belong to any terrorist organization.
Each of the suspects is facing charges carrying imminent prison terms of 5 to 30 years.
