Three people, including a British citizen, have been arrested in the US state of New Jersey on suspicion of trying to smuggle a Russian surface-to-air missile into the United States for sale to terrorists plotting an attack, law enforcement officials said.
The British national of Indian origin was arrested in Newark, New Jersey, as part of an international sting operation run by the FBI, the officials said on Tuesday.
The two other unidentified suspects were expected to be charged with helping to finance the deal.
A Federal Bureau of Investigation official, who declined to be named, said the arrest of the British man was part of a sting operation carried out in conjunction with British and Russian authorities.
Authorities believed the man was selling arms to would-be terrorists.
The FBI official had earlier said additional arrests would occur.
Court documents in the case are under seal in federal court in New Jersey, and were expected to be made public on Wednesday.
Last week, US officials said aviation security experts were dispatched to Iraq, Europe and Asia amid fears terrorists could use shoulder-fired missiles to shoot down passenger jets, officials said.
Recent intelligence reports have warned of a possible terrorist attack using small heat-seeking missiles, following several near-misses outside the United States.
Officials began to focus on the threat from shoulder-mounted missiles in November, when unknown assailants narrowly missed an Israeli charter flight taking off from Mombasa, Kenya.
In May, another missile missed a US military jet taking off from Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Al-Qaeda is suspected in both attacks.
In Iraq last month, a US C-130 military transport plane came under fire from a surface-to-air missile as it landed at Baghdad’s airport.
Brian Roehrkasse, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, said US experts have been sent to help improve security in Basra and Baghdad in Iraq, as well as in a number of Asian and European airports.
The Transportation Security Adminstration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of State and other US agencies are working on the effort to improve security at the foreign airports, he said.
Meanwhile, officials said, efforts to improve defences against portable missile attacks are already underway at US airports.
The United States has drastically tightened security at domestic airports since the September 11, 2001, attacks with four hijacked airliners. The attacks by al-Qaeda destroyed the World Trade Centre in New York, damaged the Pentagon military headquarters outside Washington and killed more than 3 000.
The best-known portable missiles are the American-made Stinger and the Russian-made SA-7. The Stinger was supplied by the United States to Afghan groups fighting Soviet invaders in the 1980s, and some may have fallen into al-Qaeda hands.
Aviation officials have said the missiles can hit jets at from as far as eight kilometres away and can reach altitudes of about 3 000 metres.
A US congressional report this year estimated that the worldwide inventory of portable surface-to-air missiles probably exceeds 500 000 and may be as high as 700 000. – Sapa-AFP