TWO INDONESIANS PLEAD GUILTY IN THE SECOND STING OPERATION CASE AGAINST TAMIL TIGERS IN BALTIMORE USA

By Walter Jayawardhana

Two of the six men pleaded guilty charged in the case following a sting operation by the FBI against illegal arms buyers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a Baltimore federal court in the USA.

They were charged with paying undercover custom agents in the US State of Maryland to smuggle out restricted high tech weapons to the Tamil Tigers who are fighting a separatist war in Sri Lanka.
When brought to the Baltimore Federal Court , dressed in prison uniforms, January 30, the two Indonesians, Reinhard Rusli(34) and Helmi Soedirdja (33) pleaded guilty for the charges of attempting to illegally export arms and money laundering.

The US federal prosecutors accused Rusli and Soedirdja of contacting undercover agents to buy monocular night vision and holographic weapons sight devices , purporting to be used by the Indonesia Army.

The charge sheet filed against the two individuals August 31 last year says they wired US $ 2950 from Indonesia to the United States to obtain monocular night vision device and holographic weapons sight. Under US laws those items cannot be exported without a license from the US State Department or any other written authority since they are restricted military technology.

The US federal government further said in the papers filed in the courts that the pair arrived in the US territory of Guam, which is an island, to complete the transaction. After their arrival the Indonesians, who were actually planning to buy them for the LTTE met with undercover US agents to examine the night vision devices and to discuss future plans to acquire further purchases of additional military equipment. According to the court papers they arrived there on September 21 last year. Thereafter they were arrested in Guam by US Immigration agents.

According to the law both of them could receive a maximum jail term of 10 years for the charge of attempting to export prohibited arms and another 20 years jail term for the money laundering charges.

But under a special provision of US law called plea bargain, they have agreed to receive a lesser jail term by pleading guilty. According to the agreement and comments on it by the presiding judge the likely prison term for Rusli and Soedirdja would be about four to five years. They are scheduled to be sentenced next April 27.

The second sting operation against the Tamil Tiger arms buyers was revealed during August of last year when undercover US agents rented a four star hotel called Harbor Hotel in Baltimore , even provided facilities in a mosque in Laurel to worship and pray and allowed him to test the military weapons he was planning to buy in a camouflaged police shooting range in Harford County.

Fooled by the elaborate sting operation the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who are also known as the Tamil Tigers, a foreign terrorist organization listed by the US State Department, deposited US $ 700,000 as a down payment to buy an arsenal of US manufactured weapons worth millions of dollars like sniper rifles, submachine guns and grenade launchers.

The arms dealers also inquired about unmanned air vehicles and buying surface to air missiles capable of shooting down the Israeli made Kfir jet military planes operated by the Sri Lanka Air Force, the prosecutors said. The remaining four men who have pleaded not guilty continue to stay in federal custody and their joint trial is scheduled to come up in May.