By Karen Breytenbach
A South African man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison in the US for conspiring to smuggle illegal military weapons into that country and sell them to a South African posing as a go-between for international terrorist groups.
Christiaan Dewet "David" Spies, 37, was convicted in July 2007 on multiple charges that included importing illegal weapons and conspiring to defraud the US government.
Sentencing him in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan), Judge Richard J Holwell said it seemed Spies "was not a practised or professional arms dealer but a petty crook who got in over his head".
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Prosecutors had sought life imprisonment.
Reports have quoted Spies as saying during the trial that he became involved in the deals to gain a US green card so he could avoid returning to South Africa.
Spies and Armenian businessman Artur Solomonyan, also known as "Alex", both of whom were living illegally in the US, were led to believe their arms buyer would get them fake green cards.
Solomonyan was sentenced last month to 22 years in prison.
According to an affidavit by an FBI special agent, Spies, Solomonyan and 16 associates, many of them from Eastern Europe, brokered deals with the "go-between" for the importing of military weapons to the US.
These included heat-seeking anti-aircraft missiles, mortar launchers, automatic assault rifles, and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The weapons were supposed to be shipped from Armenia.
Deals were discussed between 2003 and 2005 in Miami, hotels, restaurants and a spa in New York, and other locations.
Some of the weapons were supposed to be obtained from current and former Chechen military officers, the Russian military, and the Republic of Georgia.
The court heard that the FBI investigation was launched after the "go-between", South African game hunter, safari guide and explosives expert Kelly Davis, reported to law enforcement that one of the defendants had approached him about the sale of machine guns.
Spies allegedly told Davis that he had links with the Russian mafia in New York and Los Angeles. He also allegedly told Davis he did not care who his clients were.
The FBI agent said Solomonyan asked Davis if his clients had "dark skins", which Davis took to mean Middle Eastern. Davis asked Solomonyan how he knew this, and the Armenian responded that "such people had money and were interested in buying weapons and explosives".
Only one machine gun and seven assault weapons were eventually delivered to Davis.
From tapped phone conversations it emerged that Spies and Solomonyan were also involved in financial scams and credit card fraud.
The FBI said the men's involvement was exposed through accurate and reliable information from Davis.
It said this information was corroborated by the contents of about 15 000 intercepted phone conversations, some in Afrikaans, Armenian or Russian, wiretap recordings, and the discovery of the eight firearms.
The FBI observed the group for more than a year before arrests were made in 2005.
karen.breytenbach@inl.co.za
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This article was originally published on page 6 of Cape Times on April 23, 2009
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