ARMENIAN IMMIGRANT AND 5 OTHERS CONVICTED OF MILITARY-WEAPONS CHARGES IN FBI STING
By Larry Neumeister
San Diego Union Tribune, CA
July 24 2007
NEW YORK – An Armenian immigrant accused of plotting to sell
anti-aircraft missiles and other military weapons from the former
Soviet Union to an FBI informant was convicted Tuesday along with
five co-defendants.
Artur Solomonyan could face up to life in prison on charges including
arms trafficking conspiracy, firearms trafficking conspiracy,
interstate firearms trafficking and illegal transfer and possession
of a machine gun.
The charges accused the men of conspiring from December 2003 to March
2005 to import shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled
grenade launchers, anti-tank guided missiles and machine guns without
a license.
The weapons were "all designed to shoot down airplanes in the sky,
all designed to pierce through armored tanks," Assistant U.S.
Attorney Marc P. Berger said his closing argument.
Berger said the motivation was greed.
"They were opportunists. They were money makers," he told jurors.
Solomonyan’s lawyer, Louis V. Fasulo, told the jurors the case was
set up to entrap his client, who was merely leading on a government
informant who had promised to get him a green card.
"It is patently unfair for the government to entrap an individual in
a desperate situation," he said.
The only weapons actually delivered in the case were a dozen firearms,
including a machine gun.
Sentencing for all six men was set for Dec. 14. (AP)