Arms smugglers foiled

Press, 28 May 1981, Page 17

Arms smugglers foiled

By

PETER DURISCH,

“Sunday Times,” London

F The 1300 guns seized by American Customs officials at Houston Airport, Texas, this month were probably destined for the U.N.I.T.A. guerrillas fighting in Angola against the leftist government.

The weapons would first have travelled either to Johannesburg or to the long runway in the Caprivi Strip in Namibia, used by the South African forces. American law enforcement and Intelligence sources said they have no doubt that the guns — worth $1,200,000 — would have gone to South Africa. ■ ■ "The arms were destined for Johannesburg but they could have gone anywhere from there.'- -an- American Customs agent; Charles Conroy, in Houston said. "The U.N.I.T.A.- forces - in Angola are the obvious place for the final destination.

Our inquiries in Austria, Germany, South Africa. Britain, and the United States have revealed a story of corruption and double-deal-ing involving forged documents, political connivance, and a variety of intelligence services.

The men behind the arms deal were two Britons. John Parks. 43, from Eastleigh. Hampshire, and Peter Towers, 51, from Wiltshire.

Checks . among arms dealers indicated that neither of these men is considered a major force in the shadowy world of crooked arms dealing. The activities of Parks have made him known to British security forces. Little is known about Towers.

They set out to exploit

flaws in international arms control, which were exposed last January in the "Observer’’ when we purchased a document from the Zambian High Commission in London which would enable us to buy and export weapons.

Parks and Towers used the same technique. They bought such a document — known as an end-user certificate — from a former ■ Sudanese Government official who, according to American Customs officials, has been making large sums by issuing such phoney certificates.

The two men were not acting as hopeful entrepreneurs. however. When arrested they had a "purchase order” for guns issued on notepaper of the South African Government arms procurement company. Armaments Corporation. Ltd — better known as Armscor. This document will be an exhibit in the court order. Their "front” for the operation was a firm called Servotech. registered in Liechtenstein, although the company used offices in Hamburg, a notorious centre for gunrunning activities. Armed with their phoney end-user certificate and with large amounts of presumably South African finance, Parks and Towers entered the more difficult phases of the operation.

Towers approached a

small Viennese charter airline. ' Montana Fluggesellschaft, and asked it to fly a cargo of explosives from South Korea to South Africa. The airline . owner, Hans Joerge Stoeckl, aged 41, a former Austrian Airlines pilot. approached the Austrian authorities for approval for the flight. He was told that approval would be given provided the cargo was properly marked and the flight did not touch down in Austria. Servotech then cancelled the flight and, instead, asked for a quotation to fly rifles from Houston. Texas, to South Africa. The Austrian authorities said that this flight would be approved provided that they were hunting rifles and 'did not break the arms embargo on carrying weapons to South Africa. Servotech then said that the cargo would be "metalware” and there were no further problems, gaining approval for the flight.

"You can't afford to be choosy when you run a small charter business in these days of recession,” Stoeckl said from his office in Vienna.

"As long as the Ministries here in Austria have given the all-clear, and the permits

from the civil aviation authorities in the countries concerned are available, it’s all right with me.” The smugglers then made a-fatal mistake. They applied to the Office of Munitions Control in Arlington. Virginia, for an export licence.for the weapons they required. They produced their fraudulent end-user certificate from the Sudan.

• Probably unknown to these men. this American Government agency receives about one such crooked application a week and its first line of defence is to check the certificate in the country of origin. The fake Sudanese certificate was an incompetent effort, to say the least. It was signed by a supposed second secretary at the London Embassv.

Checks in Khartoum soon established that the document was bogus and the Sudanese Government knew nothing of the deal.

The Americans decided to ensnare the smugglers. Customs, the F. 8.1., the C.1.A., and local police forces were all alerted. The hook was baited irresistibly when Office of Munitions Control issued an export licence for the guns. The shopping list was im-

pressive: 796 M-16' assault rifles, 350 M-16 carbines with shorter barrels. 100 grenade launchers, 230 ; assorted handguns! and about a million rounds of ammunition.

About ‘ a month ago. Towers contacted a legitimate firearms dealer about the order.' Customs, officials say that Towers admitted to the dealer that he had a phoney Sudanese document to "cover” the arms purchase. Sadly for Towers, the dealer was a former Texas Border Patrol agent who promptly tipped off the authorities.

Three Customs agents then established a fictitious company. which they called the Merlin Trading Company — a name which rapidly" became an in-house joke." They approached Towers saying they could get his arms" by pulling strings in the United States Government and by "cutting through red tape like magic.”

Towers told the Merlin men that he was buying the guns for the Armaments Corporation, Ltd. of South Africa, and gave them a letter of credit for $1,500,000 drawn on a Dallas bank. The letter of credit was not bogus.

"They just handed the money over to us.” marvelled a Customs agent. "It was going so good, it was kind of scarev.”

From that point on. every movement was supervised by a large variety of law enforcement officers. The guns were to be bought from Colt in Hartford. Connecticut, who co-operated in the plan. The guns were placbd on a lorry and driven to Houston by a local policeman. As events were approaching a climax, not everybody was happy, Stoeckl contacted Servotech by telex and demanded an assurance that the shipment would not break the arms embargo. Servotech replied: "For good order's sake confirm that cargo for.above flight does indeed consist of steel fabricates and will indeed be dispatched with the official export documents prescribed by United States rules and regulations.” . Stoeckl’s fears were not totally allayed. "Of course. I was suspicious about this flight.” he said. "But when they sent me the confirmation I asked for concerning the embargo regulations and the Ministries of Transport and Foreign Affairs here had no objections, I had no reason to turn it down.”

He said that the flight plans had been approved in

the United States and in South Africa.

Towers and Parks flew from London to Houston to complete the deal. They spent the afternoon discussing the deal with the Merlin undercover agents and then discussed the flight details with the plane's captain. Manchester-born George Bellamv.

Bellamy had planned to leave in the afternoon, flying to South Africa via Cape Verde. When he saw the invoice indicating his shipment was firearms, he decided to wait until dark.

At 6 p.m.. the lorry arrived carrying the arms' Everybody in the cargo terminal area was in reality an agent. "We were posing as truck drivers, cargo loaders — everywhere you looked were law enforcements personnel, but the Britons didn't have a clue,” said one happy Customs officer.

At 7 p.m., as the goods were loaded on the plane, Towers, Parks, Bellamy, and the three Australian crew members were arrested.

"Sorry, gentlemen, you’re under arrest,” said a Customs officer. "They had half quizzical looks on their faces.” said another agent Claude Smith. "It was like they were asking, ‘Hey. When is "the joke over and when are you. going to take these handcuffs off us?’

The men now face charges of violating United States neutrality and of conspiracy. At a court hearing they were described as international vagabonds.” Bail totalling $3.8 million was set for the six men.