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Florida residents, 9 others charged with exporting banned items to Syria

Officials say the shipments included "dual-use" goods -- products that have both civilian and military applications.

By Doug G. Ware
A South Florida-based export company was named in a federal indictment on Friday that charged nearly a dozen people with conspiracy and fraud for allegedly shipping banned items to Syrian Arab Airlines -- the government-owned carrier that U.S. officials say has transported weapons for militant groups in the past. File Photo by Daniel Reinhardt/European Pressphoto Agency
A South Florida-based export company was named in a federal indictment on Friday that charged nearly a dozen people with conspiracy and fraud for allegedly shipping banned items to Syrian Arab Airlines -- the government-owned carrier that U.S. officials say has transported weapons for militant groups in the past. File Photo by Daniel Reinhardt/European Pressphoto Agency

Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Multiple U.S. citizens and a foreign airline were charged Friday with trying to skirt federal anti-terror restrictions by exporting potential military products to Syria, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

A total of 11 people were named in Friday's indictment, the department said in a news release. Three American citizens, two of whom live in South Florida, were among those arrested and charged.

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According to authorities, the defendants violated multiple restrictions by exporting "dual-use" goods -- products that have both civilian and military applications -- to Syrian Arab Airlines. Such shipments are a violation of a Syrian trade embargo, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), U.S. Export Administration Regulations and the Global Terrorism Sanctions Regulations.

Identified in the indictment are Miami residents Arash Caby, 43, and Marjan Caby, 34. A relative, Ali Caby, 40, a U.S. permanent resident living in Bulgaria, was also named. Eight others and the Cabys' Florida-based export business, AW-Tronics, were also named in the indictment.

The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control has barred exports to Syrian Arab Airlines, that country's national carrier, because it has purportedly transported weapons and ammunition for the militant group Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps in the past.

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The others identified in Friday's indictment are Adib Zeno, Rizk Ali, Ammar Al Mounajed, Zhelyaz Andreev, Mihaela Nenova, Lyubka Hristova, Iskren Georgiev, Ivan Sergiev.

They are charged with conspiracy to violate IEEPA and to defraud the U.S. government, with illegally smuggling goods from the United States, submitting false or misleading export information, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and making false statements.

The IEEPA, established by former President Jimmy Carter in 1977, is a federal law giving the president authority to regulate commerce in response to "unusual or extraordinary" foreign threats to U.S. national security, foreign policy or the domestic economy.

Authorities say AW-Tronics shipped and exported various aircraft parts and equipment to Syrian Arab Airlines.

"Marjan Caby, AW-Tronics' export compliance officer and auditor, facilitated these exports by submitting false and misleading electronic export information to federal agencies," the Justice Department said. "All three defendants closely supervised and encouraged subordinate employees of AW-Tronics in the willful exportation of the parts and equipment to Syrian Arab Airlines, whose activities have assisted the Syrian government's violent crackdown on its people."

The FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Defense Criminal Investigative Service and U.S. Customs and Border Protection were all involved in the investigation.

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