San Diego

One of the seven people accused of smuggling stolen F-14 fighter parts to Iran pleaded innocent Wednesday in federal court and was ordered held without bail until a hearing Friday.

Antonio G. Rodriguez, 38, entered his plea before U.S. Magistrate Roger C. McKee. Rodriguez, a Navy sailor who was AWOL when federal agents arrested him last month, was an aviation storekeeper on the amphibious assault ship Belleau Wood.

Federal prosecutors say Rodriguez used a phone on the deck of the warship to contact the alleged leader of the smuggling ring, Franklin P. Agustin, 47, of San Diego. The two talked about stolen military parts that were to be sent to Iran, prosecutors charge.

Rodriguez, a native of the Philippines, was arrested at the Naval Submarine Base in Bangor, Wash., and was transfered to San Diego to stand trial with his six co-defendants.

Prosecutors allege the smuggling ring operated out of San Diego as early as 1981 and sold military hardware stolen from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, the North Island naval warehouse and other Navy ships.

Meanwhile, a gag order imposed on attorneys, prosecutors and witnesses involved in the case was lifted Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Leland C. Neilsen, said Bob Robinson, Neilsen’s clerk.

Neilsen took over the case Monday after U.S. District Judge Earl B. Gilliam removed himself from hearing the case because of a potential conflict of interest.

Before Gilliam ordered the case reassigned, however, he imposed a gag order that prevented defense attorneys, prosecutors, law enforcement officers and witnesses from talking to the news media.