A suspected arms dealer who thought he was selling a shoulder-fired missile to a Muslim terrorist bent on shooting down an airliner actually was the target of an international sting operation that resulted in three arrests, federal officials say.
Authorities in the US, Britain and Russia cooperated in the investigation, which began months ago with a tip that the dealer, a Briton, was seeking weapons to buy in St. Petersburg, Russia, several US law enforcement officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The probe culminated Tuesday in the arrest of the alleged arms dealer at a hotel in Newark, New Jersey, where, officials said, he had flown from London to close the deal on a sophisticated Russian SA-18 ILA missile capable of bringing down commercial airliners.
The Muslim extremist who wanted the missile actually was an undercover FBI agent and the weapon was an inoperable copy brought from Russia to the US aboard a ship to make the deal seem real, officials said.
Two other men, believed to be involved in money laundering, were apprehended about the same time as the British suspect at what was described as a gem dealership on Fifth Avenue in New York City, according to a federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The names of the suspects were not immediately made available because the arrests and charges were under court-ordered seal.
However, the law enforcement official said the British suspect is Hemat Lakhani. He will be charged with material support of terrorism and weapons smuggling, the official said.
Lakhani is not believed to be connected to al-Qaeda or any other known terrorist group, federal officials say. Authorities also stressed that there was no specific, credible threat to shoot down an airliner in the US.
But one official said the understanding between Lakhani and the undercover agent was that the missile needed to be capable of bringing down a commercial airliner.
Evidence against Lakhani includes hours of audio and videotapes in which he discusses the plot, speaks favorably of Osama bin Laden and refers to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as "a good thing," according to another federal law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
All three suspects were expected to appear yesterday in federal court in Newark, officials said.
US Justice Department officials had no immediate comment on the case.
The investigation began when Russian authorities s passed on a tip about the reputed arms dealer's activities to the FBI, US officials said.
British officials, including the MI5 domestic intelligence agency, helped track the man's whereabouts. The investigation also involved the US Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Secret Service.
The chief spokesman for Russia's Federal Security Service or FSB, the main successor of the KGB, said the operation was a result of close cooperation among the secret services of the US, Russia and Britain, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
"This action marks a new stage in the development of cooperation between the special services of these countries," ITAR-Tass quoted FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko as saying.
He said it was the first such operation since the Cold War.
Concerns about terrorists using shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down commercial airliners increased last November when two SA-7 missiles narrowly missed an Israeli passenger jet after it took off from Mombasa, Kenya. Officials concluded that al-Qaeda probably was behind the attack, which coincided with a bomb blast at a nearby hotel.
Hundreds and perhaps thou-sands of shoulder-fired missiles that can hit low-flying aircraft within three miles are said to be available on the worldwide arms market.
The US has sent experts to domestic airports as well as to airports in Iraq and major capitals in Europe and Asia to assess security and determine whether the airports can be defended against shoulder-fired missiles.
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