U.S. Drug Sting Catches Syrian Arms Dealer in Spain

On June 8, 2007, the U.S. announced the arrest of a Syrian arms dealer in Spain and two of his partners in Romania as part of a U.S. law enforcement sting conducted with the support of a number of foreign law enforcement agencies. A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) sting caught Monzer Al Kassar, 61, an alleged international arms dealer. Law enforcement authorities simultaneously arrested Tareq Mousa Al Ghazi ("Ghazi"), 60, and Luis Felipe Moreno Godoy ("Moreno"), 58, in Romania. Michael J. Garcia, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Karen P. Tandy, DEA, announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Kassar and his two co-conspirators with conspiring to sell millions of dollars of weapons to the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a designated foreign terrorist organization … [more]