3 Portuguese Held in Plot to Sell Radar Parts to Iran

U.S. Customs officers Saturday arrested three Portuguese citizens at Los Angeles International Airport, charging them with conspiracy to sell to Iran more than $600,000 worth of restricted parts for missile and other radar systems.

Agents also seized 23 boxes of electronic parts at a storage rental facility in Irvine, including $350,000 worth of radar guidance equipment for the Hawk anti-aircraft missile system, according to Alan D. Walls, agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of the Customs Service.

The remainder of the parts were identified as “state-of-the-art” components for mobile tactical radar systems with three-dimensional display ability, he said.

Eduardo G. Ojeda, 54, and Moises Broder, 47, of Lisbon, Portugal, were taken into custody as they tried to board an airliner that was about to leave for Lisbon. Carlos A. Ribeiro, 45, a Portuguese travel agent who lives in Sherman Oaks, was arrested in a parking lot. They did not resist.

The arrests culminated a 10-month investigation, a Customs announcement said. But Walls would not say why agents were suspicious of the men or what grounds investigators have for believing that the equipment was destined for Iran.

He said the three paid $619,000 for the parts, but he refused to reveal the source, other than to say that the manufacturers of the equipment were not involved.

The investigation is continuing and there is a possibility of more arrests, Walls said.

The Hawk system was developed in the 1960s for use against planes at low and medium altitudes. Fired from a tracked vehicle and guided by radar, it reaches supersonic speeds and has a range of about 22 miles.

Hawk systems were sold to Iran when that country was under the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, but the United States cut off supplies of replacement parts when the government fell to the unfriendly regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The missiles have been sold by the United States to a number of other countries, including Saudi Arabia, Israel, Kuwait and Jordan. It is one of the weapons the Reagan Administration has agreed to sell to China.

Wall said the investigation was part of the continuing “Operation Exodus,” begun in 1982 to keep American military technology out of the hands of unfriendly nations.

Three other cases by the Los Angeles office in the last six months, he said, involved the arrest of a suspect charged with trying to export to Iran spare parts for F-14 and F-4 fighter planes, two suspects arrested for trying to send computer disc coating equipment to Bulgaria and the seizure of computer chips destined for China.