Illegal arms: U.S. targets banned weapon exports.

U.S. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT--an arm of the Department of Homeland Security that is known as ICE--is cracking down on the illegal exportation of military arms and other sensitive technology.

Preventing terrorist groups and hostile nations from obtaining such technology, particularly components of weapons of mass destruction, is "one of our highest priorities," Steven Arruda, chief of arms and strategic technology investigations for ICE, told National Defense Magazine.

ICE came into being in 2003 with the creation of the department. It includes more than 20,000 employees of the law enforcement, investigative and intelligence elements of the Customs, Immigration and Naturalization, Federal Protective and Federal Air Marshals Services.

In 2004, Arruda said, ICE agents conducted more than 2,500 investigations into illegal exporting of munitions and other sensitive technology. They made 146 arrests and brought 103 indictments.

"Typically, these cases involve two types of items--equipment and technology that is strictly military in nature and civilian products that have a military application, or dual use," he said. "Lots of equipment used in laboratories have dual uses. For example, you may have a spectrometer that measures the curvature of glass. It could be used to manufacture eyeglasses or a part for a missile."

Under federal law, the export of military and dual-use technologies is limited strictly to allies, but buyers for terrorist organizations and potential adversaries--such as Iran, North Korea, Syria, Sudan and China--are busy trying to acquire weapons systems and other sensitive equipment.

By its very nature, the illegal arms trade is difficult to measure, but it certainly amounts to tens of millions of dollars a year, Arruda said. More important than the monetary value of the illegal exports is the strategic and potential utility of the products, he noted.

"A lot of this technology can end up killing Americans," said ICE spokesman Dean Boyd. "It can affect the balance of power on the battlefield."

In April, for example, a District Court in Florida sentenced a 55-year-old Colombian--Guillermo Cardoso-Arias--to 46 months in prison for attempting to export 200 AK-47 automatic assault rifles without a license to his native country. The rifles were to be used by the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia, a right-wing militia on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations.

Spare parts are in high demand. Also in April, an Iranian--Abbas Tavakolian--pled guilty in federal court in Baltimore, Md., to money laundering and trying to export F-4 Phantom and F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft components to his homeland. His shopping list included gunnery system parts for the aircrafts. One such component was the M61A1 Vulcan six-barrel, rotary action, inner drum, which is essential to feed ammunition into an aircraft Gattling gun.

The scheme was global. Tavakolian transferred money from Panama to the United States to buy the parts. He met with undercover ICE agents in Europe to obtain an inner drum, and he met with agents again in the South Pacific to acquire the parts--at a cost of $380,000--and arrange for their shipment to Iran.

Without the Iranian's knowledge, ICE agents subsequently intercepted the parts, so they never reached Iran. He was arrested later, when he tried to acquire several complete F-14s for shipment to his home country.

Another popular product for illegal exporting is night-vision technology. "Many militaries around the world have older versions of night vision," Arruda said. "What the bad guys are looking for is generation III, the latest version used by U.S. troops."

In December 2004, Austrian authorities--working with ICE agents--arrested two Iranians who were seeking 3,000 helmet-mounted generation III night-vision goggles. "The Austrians were very helpful to us," Arruda said.

Another country that has cooperated with ICE has been the Netherlands. Dutch authorities in December arrested Frans Van Anraat, 62, on charges of genocide for his role in supplying chemical weapons components to Iraq that were used by Saddam Hussein to gas thousands of Kurds in 1988.

ICE investigators charged in 1989 that Van Anraat had had arranged for four shipments of thiodiglycol--a precursor chemical for mustard gas--from the United States to Iraq. He was arrested in Italy, but authorities there released him, and he fled to Iraq. After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Van Anraat returned to his homeland, where Dutch police took him into custody.

China--despite its growing technological capability--is still a destination of illegal exports from the United States, ICE officials said. In November, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ordered Los Angeles aircraft parts supplier Interaero Inc. to pay $500,000 and serve five years of corporate probation for illegally exporting components for HAWK missiles, F-4 Phantom and F-5 Phantom/Tiger fighter jets to China.

The conviction was the eleventh in California and the District of Columbia to result from a five-year ICE investigation that targeted aircraft parts suppliers who sold defense parts over the Internet to foreign buyers without obtaining the required export licenses or complying with arms embargoes.

Sometimes, the shipments are intended for allies. Also in November, Carlos Melean was indicted for attempting to send radar antennae control boxes for Orion P-3 surveillance aircraft to Spain, a member of NATO. According to the complaint, the boxes were intended for use by the Spanish air force.

In 2004, Asher Karni was arrested in Denver, Colo., in connection with a plot to export devices with nuclear-weapons applications to Pakistan, an important ally in the war on terrorism. The devices--known as triggered spark gaps--have civilian uses in hospitals, but they also can be employed to detonate nuclear bombs. As part the undercover investigation, ICE agents disabled 66 of them before they were routed through South Africa, the United Arab Emirates and ultimately to Pakistan.

Countries seeking illegally to acquire U.S. defense technology often use middlemen around the world. When such schemes are discovered, allied authorities almost always cooperate in investigating and arresting those involved, said Robert A. Schoch, deputy assistant director of ICE's national security investigations division. To help keep track of illegal exports, ICE maintains 56 offices in 43 different countries, he said.

ICE officials acknowledge that it often is difficult for U.S. manufacturers to recognize illegal arms exporters. "They deal through brokers and middlemen," said Schoch. ""You're not going to get a call from an Iranian or a Syrian.

"You're going be talking to somebody from a company with a name like 'Johnny Brown Associates' in Oklahoma," he said. "That person may be dealing with a contact somewhere in, say, Europe, and that person may be in contact with somebody in Tehran or Damascus."

To educate U.S. companies about export laws and to seek their assistance in catching violators, ICE is conducting an outreach program called "Project Shield America." Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, ICE agents have visited more than 10,700 companies that resulted in tips that have led to nationwide, even worldwide, investigations, Schoch said.

"We emphasize that we're not here to impede industry's international sales," he said. "We just want you to do one thing--report suspicious inquiries to us. If you get an e-mail that strikes you as questionable, don't hit the 'delete' button on your computer. Continue the contact, and let us know."

Business officials are encouraged to assist ICE by:

* Identifying inquiries and orders for production parts or technology likely to be shipped outside the United States, and ensuring that these transactions are reviewed by export specialists.

* Making sure that their companies have specialists who are knowledgeable about export controls and follow appropriate screening and licensing procedures.

* Requiring that employees fully understand that the government restricts the flow of sensitive data and know-how in written, oral and visual formats.

* Identifying all suspicious or unusual inquiries and orders for sensitive technology and notifying ICE as soon as possible without informing the suspect party.

ICE came under fire in March with release of a report from the Government Accountability Office that questioned the pace of its investigations. "The number of investigations opened and individuals arrested by ICE agents for suspected arms-export violations has fluctuated widely over the past five fiscal years," the report said.

Furthermore, the report added, "When ICE opens an investigation ... it may take several years for agents to build a case and eventually make an arrest--if one is made at all. Once an arrest is made, several years may pass before [the Justice Department] brings the case to trial and obtains a conviction."

Michael J. Garcia, assistant secretary of homeland security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, conceded in congressional testimony that ICE has faced "significant challenges" since its founding in 2003.

"We have had m build a new agency almost from the ground up--bringing together divisions from four separate agencies into a single functioning unit and melding the cultures and missions of various units into a unified whole," Garcia said.

A particular problem was the budget, he noted. Funding for component units was "broken apart in ways that were not always consistent. As a result, in some cases, ICE was paying for services when the funds for those services had been allocated to other agencies."

To compensate for the budgetary shortfall, CE placed a temporary freeze on new hires, limited expenditures to show deemed "mission essential" and sought to clarify funding priorities. As a result of those efforts, ICE recouped $120 million in short-term savings in fiscal 2004 and recovered more than $500 million from other agencies in the second half of 2004, Garcia said.

For 2006, the administration is seeking more than $4.36 billion for ICE, an increase of 13.5 percent. Of this amount, $105 million will go to the office of investigations.