Smuggling Ring Called ‘Worldwide Network’ : Suspect Flees U.S. With Family in Stolen F-14 Parts Case

A member of a smuggling ring that exported sophisticated military equipment for sale to Iran has escaped arrest and is being sought, federal officials said Thursday at a court hearing.

Meanwhile, prosecutors said that the San Diego-based ring is much larger than first reported, and sources said more Navy sailors are expected to be arrested as the investigation continues.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Phillip Halpern told U.S. Magistrate Roger C. McKee that the man being sought, whom he identified only as a Filipino, fled the United States after stories about the government investigation were published over the weekend. Halpern declined to reveal the suspect’s identity, where he lived or where he fled to, except to say that he was actively involved in the selling of stolen F-14 aircraft parts to Iran.

“One of the individuals targeted by the government fled after the fact of the conspiracy came to light,” Halpern said. “Not only did he flee, but he took his entire family with him. He’s a Filipino.”

Halpern and Assistant U.S. Atty. Steve Crandall, who is also prosecuting the case, declined to say how the suspect and his family managed to elude law enforcement officials. Investigators began tapping the phones of suspected ring members in April, and the suspects were kept under constant surveillance.

“The nature of the case requires that the defendants be held without bail . . . The government allegations on the conspiracy matter are very serious charges,” said McKee.

Federal prosecutors also said that the San Diego-based ring is much larger than first reported.

“It was a worldwide distribution network (of parts) to Iran . . . It was not a conspiracy by one, two, three or five individuals. It took a lot of coordination and a large amount of people,” said Halpern.

Six suspects have been arrested in San Diego, New York and England. The four people arrested in San Diego include alleged ringleader Franklin P. Agustin, 47; his wife, Julie, 45; Pedro M. Quito, 60, and Primitivo B. Cayabyab, 36. Cayabyab, a sailor on active duty, worked as an aviation storekeeper on the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. Quito, who is retired from the Navy, was a civilian warehouse worker assigned to the Fleet Avionics Logistics Support Center in San Diego.

Edgardo Agustin, 45, who is Franklin Agustin’s brother, was arrested in New York. British Customs officials arrested Saeid Asefi Inanlou, an Iranian national living in London. Inanlou allegedly received the stolen parts and forwarded them to Iran. Ring members are charged with stealing sophisticated combat aircraft equipment for the F-14 from Navy ships and warehouses and selling them to the Iranians.

Sources close to the investigation said that more arrests are expected as the investigation continues, including the arrests of more sailors.

“The stacks of Navy documents recovered from the (Frank and Julie) Agustins show that there may be more sailors from the Kitty Hawk involved in this,” a federal official said.

Another official told The Times that earlier this year Customs agents watched as a San Diego-based Navy photographer handed a stack of photos and documents to Franklin Agustin at a swap meet in San Diego.

Thursday’s hearing was attended by several Agustin relatives, who watched silently as attorneys for Franklin and Julie Agustin and Quito argued unsuccessfully for their release on bail.

Halpern argued that all were flight risks because they own property in the Philippines and have relatives or friends in Canada and Europe. Halpern told McKee that Franklin Agustin is an illegal alien and accused him of once running an alien-smuggling ring with his brother, Edgardo. According to Halpern, the two men smuggled Filipino aliens into the United States through Mexico and the Netherlands in the 1970s.

Julie Agustin, who married Franklin in September, 1983, owns a house on the U.S. Naval base at Subic Bay in the Philippines, Halpern said. It was also revealed at the hearing that she has a son in the Army who is stationed in Nevada.

Walter Lundstein, Quito’s lawyer, said that his client served in the Navy for 20 years before retiring. Lundstein argued that Quito’s involvement with the Agustins was minimal and said Quito did not meet the Agustins until 1982, when he went to the couple’s travel agency in National City to buy an airline ticket.

McKee ordered the Agustin couple and Quito, who were arrested on Friday and Monday, held without bail, after Halpern argued they might flee to the Philippines. A bail hearing for Cayabyab is scheduled for today.