US police arrested nine people charged with plotting to use rifles and rockets to overthrow the communist government in Laos, a prosecutor in California said on Monday.
The suspects, mostly members of the Hmong ethnic group, were seized after US authorities "interrupted a plot to overthrow the government of Laos by force and violence," the public prosecutor in the state capital Sacramento said in a statement.
The "Hmong insurgency planned to use AK-47 automatic rifles, Stinger missiles, LAW rockets, anti-tank rockets and other arms and munitions to topple [the] Lao government and reduce government buildings in Vientiane to rubble," it said.
Targets allegedly discussed by the plotters included the Royal Palace in the Lao capital.
Hundreds of federal agents swooped on the suspects in pre-dawn raids across California.
Those seized include Hmong former general Vang Pao -- a veteran resistance fighter -- and Harrison Jack, a retired officer of the US Army.
The nine, most aged in their fifties and sixties, were heard during the covert investigation discussing plans to buy hundreds of rifles, rockets, mines, grenades and surface-to-air missiles and ship them to Laos via Thailand.
The others arrested were named as Lo Cha Thao, 34; Youa True Vang, 60; Hue Vang, 39; Chong Vang Thao, 53; Seng Vue, 68; Chu Lo, 59, and Lo Thao, 53. A 10th person was arrested but not yet charged.
Vang, 77, is a prominent figure in the Hmong community in the US, a former general in the Royal Lao army in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1975, like many Hmong, he fled to the US after communists ousted Laos' royal rulers.
Harrison, 60, is a graduate of the prestigious West Point US military academy, the prosecutor said. Local media said Harrison served in the Vietnam War and had close ties to the Hmong community in California.
The arrests followed a six-month investigation by police and anti-terrorism authorities dubbed "Operation Tarnished Eagle."
An undercover agent of the federal US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives infiltrated the plotters.
Rights groups have accused Lao authorities of persecuting the Hmong hill tribes, which include former resistance fighters opposed to the communist regime.
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