Seven people, including an Iranian state television correspondent, were in jail in Italy on Wednesday night after an international operation to smash an alleged plot to buy arms for Iran. A Briton, thought to be a former member of the SAS — British special forces — was said to have been arrested at an earlier stage of the inquiry.
The alleged conspiracy involved sourcing and delivering armaments and equipment, which a source close to the investigation said may have been destined for a terrorist group sponsored by Tehran. The items included 1,000 German-manufactured laser sights, tracer bullets, silencers, explosives from Bulgaria and a highly flammable compound that investigators said could be used in munitions, either as a chemical detonator or for incendiary devices.
“Operation Sniper” was also said to have foiled an attempt to buy dual use — civil and military — items, including parachutes, radios, pilots’ helmets and diving equipment. The alleged arms smugglers were suspected of trying to lease nine helicopters in Africa when the ring was smashed.
Italian anti-terrorism prosecutor Armando Spataro told a press conference the trade “often involved buying merchandise abroad and moving it between Italy and other nations to hide the final and real destination, which was Iran.”
Iran is the subject of an international arms embargo.
Further raids were reported on Wednesday night as officers of Italy’s semi-militarized revenue guard searched premises belonging to Italian and Iranian citizens.
Investigators said the operation began after Romanian customs officers queried a shipment of 200 rifle scopes made by a German firm, Schmidt & Bender. The consignment was traced to a firm in northern Italy run by Alessandro Bon, a 43-year-old former employee of the firearms manufacturer Beretta. Further shipments of rifle scopes bound for Dubai were discovered in Switzerland and, in February last year, at Heathrow Airport in London.
A source close to the investigation told the Guardian that British customs officers had subsequently arrested a man. The source believed him to have served in the SAS.
Bon, his girlfriend, a 39-year-old businesswoman, two other Italian businessmen and a Turin lawyer were arrested on Tuesday night. Investigators said evidence from wiretaps suggested the lawyer had visited Iran for meetings with senior officers in the armed forces.
Also in Turin, police held one of four men suspected of working for Iranian intelligence. Two others, whose arrests were ordered by a Milan judge, were untraceable and were thought to have fled to Iran from Dubai.
The fourth suspect, Hamid Masoumi Nejad, 51, a correspondent for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, was arrested yesterday morning near the foreign press association in Rome.
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