Iranian pleads guilty to attempted arms export

An Iranian has pleaded guilty in Federal court to money laundering and attempting to illegally export fighter aircraft parts to his homeland, officials said.

Abbas Tavakolian sought to export F-4 and F-14 parts without a licence, the Maryland US Attorney’s office said. They included gunnery system parts needed to feed ammunition into the fighters’ multi-barrel weapon system.

On July 20, Tavakolian transferred nearly $6,000 from Panama to the US, contacting undercover agents to get the US technology for the Iranian Military. Later payments were to the tune of $14,000 , with $100,000 paid to agents.

Tavakolian was arrested in December after meeting again with undercover agents in an attempt to obtain several complete F-14 fighters for Iran. —PTI