F-4 Design Data Taken in Theft at Parts Firm

Computer cards containing sketches and design specifications for the F-4 Phantom jet fighter have been stolen from the Camarillo offices of a firm under investigation for alleged illegal shipment of F-4 parts to Iran, authorities said.

Ventura County sheriff’s detectives said thieves apparently entered the Elgie Corp.’s offices through a skylight sometime last week and made off with 190,000 of the computer cards. The stolen cards were valued at $60,000.

Elgie manufactures F-4 parts, and anyone with the proper equipment could use the stolen cards to produce photographic prints showing the exact specifications and dimensions of various parts for the fighter, said Sheriff’s Sgt. Paul Oeschsle.

He added, however, that sheriff’s investigators do not consider the theft, discovered Friday, to be related to seizures by the U.S. government last year of two shipments of F-4 parts manufactured by Elgie, based in Layton, Utah.

The U.S. Customs Service intercepted a crate of F-4 parts at Denver’s Stapleton Airport in October, a shipment which agents said was made without an export license and headed for a London firm that once acted as a purchasing agent for Iran.

Agents confiscated the aircraft parts and sent the container, repacked with 1,128 pounds of sand and cement, to London, investigators said.

“We have no evidence to indicate that this particular seizure of parts was destined for the Iranian government,” Special Agent Gary Hillberry said Saturday. “The company used to be a purchasing agent for Iran.”

After the October seizure, Denver-based customs agent Ron Lombardi said in court documents that Elgie and another Utah firm had made “in excess of 65 export shipments of aircraft parts, all without license, in the last two years. The preliminary examination also indicates that the majority of the parts being exported in these shipments are for the F-4 Phantom.”

In early November, customs agents searched Elgie’s offices in Layton and discovered information enabling them to seize another shipment of F-4 parts at Salt Lake City’s International Airport, said Hillberry, who heads the agency’s Denver office.

Agents also searched Elgie’s Camarillo office in November, Hillberry said. Two boxes of records were confiscated, but no aircraft parts were seized, he stated, adding that his agency’s investigation is continuing.

Elgie officials could not be reached for comment Saturday.

Most of Iran’s military equipment was supplied by the United States until the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in 1979. Since then, the United States has embargoed shipments of arms or spare parts to Iran, which is at war with neighboring Iraq.

Investigators said Iran is scouring the world for military parts, for which the country’s fundamentalist Islamic government is willing to pay exorbitant prices.

The seizures of F-4 parts were made as part of Operation Exodus, the U.S. government’s crackdown on illegal arms shipments to “unfriendly” nations, Hillberry said.