Major Export Enforcement Cases - Directorate of Defense Trade ...

of these goods was the Pasteur Institute of Iran, which has been listed as an entity of concern for
biological and chemical weapons development by several foreign governments. Agents
unraveled Vaghari’s efforts in 2005 after receiving a complaint from a vendor at Beckman-
Coulter, a nationwide manufacturer of medical equipment, asserting that Vaghari was attempting
to purchase a $100,000 centrifuge from the company, which weighed some 1,000 pounds, for
delivery to his apartment and that Vaghari was seeking to pay in cash and did not request a
warranty or installation. The investigation was conducted by FBI, BIS, and ICE.
Machine Guns and Grenades to Mexico -- On May 26, 2011, Guadalupe Salazar-Tovar was
sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to 46 months in prison for attempting to smuggle 20
grenades and 8 fully-automatic machine guns in to Mexico in violation of the Arms Export
Control Act. Salazar-Tovar was arrested along with Eliu Rivera-Mendez on Dec. 7, 2010 after
they attempted to purchase these items from undercover ATF agents for individuals in Mexico.
Rivera-Mendez has also pleaded guilty. The investigation was conducted by ATF and ICE.
U.S. Aircraft Components to Iran – On May 17, 2011, a grand jury in the Southern District of
California returned a superseding indictment charging Belgian citizens Willy A.E. De Greef and
Frederic Depelchin, as well as their Belgium-based companies, Meca Airways LTD and Meca
Overseas Airways LTD, with 15 felony counts arising from the smuggling of helicopter and
fixed-wing aircraft components from the United States to Iran. De Greef was also charged with
two counts of making false statements to the U.S. government concerning the smuggling ring.
DeGreef was arrested in the United Kingdom pursuant to a March 18, 2011 prior indictment in
the Southern District of California charging he and his co-defendants with fraudulently procuring
millions of dollars worth of helicopter and airplane components from U.S. suppliers by indicating
to the suppliers that the destination of the parts was Belgium or another non-prohibited location.
After the parts were exported from the United States to Belgium, De Greef and Depelchin
allegedly promptly transshipped them to Iran, typically via France, the indictment alleges. This
investigation was conducted by ICE and DCIS.
Military Technical Data to South Korea – On May 16, 2011, Young Su Kim, a former Vice
President at Rocky Mountain Instrument Company (RMI), based in Colorado, pleaded guilty in
the District of Colorado to violating the Arms Export Control Act. Kim was first charged on
April 21, 2011. Kim caused the illegal export to South Korea of technical data related to prisms
that are useful in guidance or targeting systems in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, AC-130 gunships,
tanks and missile systems. On Aug. 17, 2011, Kim was sentenced to five years probation and
ordered to pay a $36,000 civil forfeiture judgment. RMI, the company, pleaded guilty on June
22, 2010, to one count of violating the Arms Export Control Act and was immediately sentenced
to five years probation and ordered to forfeit $1 million. The case was investigated by ICE and
DCIS.
Assault Rifles and Ammunition to Mexico – On May 13, 2011, Juan Sauceda was sentenced in
the Southern District of Texas to 40 months in prison for conspiring to export weapons to
Mexico. Sauceda was arrested on Nov. 23, 2010 after U.S. border officials found 10 semiautomatic
firearms and large quantities of ammunition in his car as he was attempting to cross the
border to Mexico. The investigation was conducted by ICE and ATF.
Machine Guns and Grenades to Mexico – On April 22, 2011, Hector Rolando Enriquez was
sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to 55 months in prison. His co-defendant, Guillermo
Enriquez-Rodriguez was sentenced on April 19, 2011 to 57 months in prison, and a third
defendant, Rubisel Valdez-Mar, was sentenced on April 20, 2011 to 68 months in prison. All
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