U.S. charges six for attempted arms sales in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

U.S. charges six for attempted arms sales in Colombia
13 January 2011 | 03:17 | FOCUS News Agency

Miami. U.S. authorities have charged six men arrested in Colombia with attempting to sell grenade launchers, automatic rifles and other weapons to undercover agents posing as members of a far-right Colombian paramilitary group, Reuters reported.

The men, three Colombian nationals, two Hondurans and a Nicaraguan, also face charges of trafficking cocaine destined for the United States, the U.S. attorney's office in Miami said in a statement Wednesday.

U.S. officials said the six were arrested in a sting operation and thought they were selling the weapons to members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, one of the paramilitary groups set up in the 1980s by wealthy Colombians to fight leftist rebels.

It was not immediately clear if the men were arrested by U.S. or Colombian law enforcement officials. Nor was it immediately clear if the men were still in Colombia or the United States, or if they would be extradited to the United States.

More:
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n239331

[Judi Lynn]

1. Men arrested for conspiracy to provide weapons to Colombian terrorists

Men arrested for conspiracy to provide weapons to Colombian terrorists
January 13th, 2011 4:54 pm ET.

A federal sting operation against an international weapons trafficking organization operating in the United States and Central and South America has lead to the arrest of six suspects in Colombia being charged in the Southern District of Florida.

Franklin William McField-Bent, a/k/a Buda, 53, a Nicaraguan national, who is charged with four counts of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to a designated terrorist organization and three counts of narcotics charges, was arrested in Barranquilla, Colombia on October 8, 2010.

Also charged and arrested in Colombia were five members of his drug and weapons smuggling organization: Jeison Archibold, 29, a Colombian national, Miguel Villela, a/k/a/ "Don Miguel," 54, a Honduran national, Juan Carlos Cuao Camacho, 40, a Colombian national, Fausto Aguero Alverado, 38, a Honduran national, and Edwin Rodriguez Leon, 28, a Colombian national.

According to the indictment dated January 12, 2011, McField-Bent and others conspired and attempted to provide grenade launchers, grenades, automatic rifles and other weapons to what they thought were members of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia (AUC). The AUC has been designated a foreign terrorist organization by the United States Secretary of State since September 10, 2001.

The suspects believed they were meeting with members of the AUC when in fact the gunrunners and drug smugglers were dealing with undercover Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. If convicted, McField-Bent faces a maximum 15-year sentence in prison on each of the four material support counts.

More:
http://www.examiner.com/public-safety-in-national/men-arrested-conspiracy-to-provide-weapons-to-colombian-terrorists