Accused Arms Dealers Taken Into Custody on Arrival From Bermuda

Police, acting on a death threat against five accused arms dealers, whisked them off a plane as they arrived Wednesday to face charges of trying to sell $2.1-billion worth of U.S. bombers and arms to Iran, officials said.

The suspects, including retired Israeli army Brig. Gen. Avraham Bar-Am, were taken off Pan Am Flight 133 from Bermuda shortly after it landed at Kennedy International Airport and were placed in federal vehicles, the officials said.

Port Authority Police escorted the convoy to the Van Wyck Expressway, where it was picked up by New York City Police and led to U.S. Customs Service offices at the World Trade Center.

Had Prior Information

“They had prior information that there was going to be a hit,” said Lt. Bernard Graber, a Port Authority spokesman. “We didn’t want to subject them to the traveling public.”

Bermuda on Wednesday deported the five men, who are wanted in New York on charges of conspiring to illegally sell Iran $2.1-billion worth of U.S.-made weapons, including missiles, jet fighters, bombers, helicopters and tanks.

The five suspects were among 17 people indicted in the case last month.

Deportation Appeal Refused

“We’re going to New York,” one of the five, William Northrup, said Tuesday after their appeal against the deportation order was refused. Northrup, of Scottsdale, Ariz., has Israeli citizenship.

The other suspects are American Samuel Evans, 50, a London-based lawyer; Israeli Rafael Eisenberg, 55, and his son Guriel, 30, who runs an insurance business in Jerusalem.

They were arrested April 21 and charged with immigration violations and refusing to re-board a British Airways flight that stopped in Bermuda en route from London to Baltimore.

The charges were dropped when Deputy Gov. Mark Herdman signed a deportation order. The five appealed the order, claiming it was an attempt to surrender them to U.S. authorities, not to expel undesirables from Bermuda.