Are you guys trying to trade Guns too?
"A 30-YEAR-OLD Singaporean pleaded guilty yesterday to trying to
supply 20,000 assault rifles to a shady Syrian arms dealer last
year.
Colin Mak Yew Loong admitted to conspiring with B.R. Chaandrran,
45, to move the AKMS assault rifles, valued at US$3.4 million
(S$5.4 million), from Bulgaria to Syria.
Chaandrran is denying the charges.
In court yesterday, it was revealed that Chaandrran was an employee
of Dannhauser, a company registered to deal in strategic goods such
as weapons and ammunition.
When his company refused to supply a shady arms dealer in Syria,
Chaandrran is alleged to have pulled off the deal on his own.
He roped in Mak, the managing director of a Swiss-based firm
specialising in computer software, who helped broker the deal
between the Bulgarian seller and the Syrian buyer and hid the
transaction with false documents.
Acting on a tip-off, Customs officers moved in and found
incriminating e-mail messages, exchanged between May and September
last year, in Mak's computer. They also found that he had acted as
broker for the cargo without having first registered with
Customs.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Cheow Han said it was not necessary
for the guns to pass through Singapore and that even though the
delivery was not made, the act of brokering the deal without
registering to deal in strategic goods was an offence.
Mak is the third Singaporean caught for illegal arms dealing, but
the first to be prosecuted here for brokering in strategic
goods.
He tried to convince District Judge Wong Keen Onn to hear the case
in camera, away from public eye or the media. The DPP objected to
this request, arguing that the case did not involve any public
security issues. The judge dismissed the application.
Mak also asked the court to order the media not to identify him. He
said his life would be in danger. But he was unable to provide any
evidence to prove this.
The case will be next heard on July 7.
The AKMS belongs to the AK47 family of carbines, the favoured
weapons of terrorists.
Two other Singaporeans have been caught overseas for illegal arms
dealing.
Ronald Chia Kia Cheng, 60, a retired senior SAF officer who runs a
company trading in weapons and security equipment, was arrested in
San Diego in April. He was trying to buy American carbines, also
for potential buyers in Syria, which remains on the US arms embargo
list.
The other case, blown open in Hawaii in April, involved Ibrahim
Amran, 26, and three Indonesian men. They were trying to buy a
stash of weapons, including aircraft missiles and Heckler &
Koch sub-machine guns, for US$3.3 million. "
They tried to do a Lord of WAR like Nicolas Cage but No CIA
backing.
