S.A. arms cargo trapped

Press, 15 May 1981, Page 8

S.A. arms cargo trapped

NZPA-Reuter, Houston Bail totalling S3.BM was set yesterday for six men, described by a' prosecutor as “international vagabonds.” who were charged with illegally frying to export 1486 firearms and ammunition to South Africa. The six were arrested on Wednesday by Federal undercover agents who had bought the military hardware in Connecticut and sent it to Texas, as the SIM cargo was being prepared for loading on a jet bound for South Africa, officials said. Two of the • suspectsa, Peter Towers, aged 51, and John Parks, aged 43, both of

Britain, -were “middlemen who came to the United States to buy firearms,” said Senior Customs Agent. Nor-, man Buselmeier. The other four were crewmen on the Boeing 707 jetliner, chartered from Montana Austria, a private airline based in Austria. The crated munitions were 1146 fully automatic Ml 6 rifles and carbines, 100 gre-nade-launchers, 111.45-cal pistols, 39.9 mm pistols, 40 assorted smaller handguns, and 15,000 Ml 6 arqmunition magazines, Mr Buselmeier said. Assistant United States Attorney Mike Brown had asked for bail of SSM each

for Towers and. Parks. He said all six defendants "could be called international vagabonds.” He said that in previous cases nvolving alleged shpments to South Africa, that nation would “post bond in cash and the defendants are never seen again.” aThe six were accused of conspiring to export firearms without a proper State Department “end-use certificate” in violation of the United States Neutrality Act, punishable by fines of $lOO,OOO and two years in prison. Customs officers said Parks and Towers ap-

proached a firearms dealer — a former border patrol agent — who recognised their certificate as fraudulent and tipped off Customs about their plans about three weeks ago. They said the certificate said the weapons were bound for Sudan, in east Africa. An undercover operation was launched and Customs agents posing as military arms dealers took SI.3M, from the defendants, used it to buy the weapons from Colt Industries of Hartford, Connecticut, and delivered the munitions to the site of the raid at Houston Intercontinental Airports.