Brothers Plead Guilty in Smuggling of Stolen Jet Parts

Two Filipino brothers charged with running an international smuggling ring that pilfered F-14 Navy jet parts for shipment to Iran pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to four felony counts each.

Franklin P. Agustin, 48, and Edgardo P. Agustin, 46, face up to 27 years in prison and $850,000 in fines each when they are scheduled to appear Sept. 3 before U.S. District Judge L. C. Nielsen for sentencing.

Winding down a case that raised concerns about the security of the military supply system, they pleaded guilty to conspiring to steal and export stolen government property without an export license.

Despite the pleas, prosecutors and defense attorneys disagreed sharply over how much the stolen jet parts were worth. While a list released by prosecutors Thursday valued the items at $7 million, the defense attorneys said the parts were worth between $50,000 and $250,000.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Phillip Halpern said the pleas were an “acknowledgement of what we’ve said all along, that this international arms smuggling organization had been penetrating the U.S. military service to steal and export millions upon millions of dollars of sophisticated armaments.”

However, Lonn E. Berney, Edgardo Agustin’s attorney, said the brothers were only businessmen from a “different culture” who didn’t realize they were breaking the law when they were shipping the parts. They acknowledge now that they did wrong because they can see the “cumulative” effect of their actions, Berney said.

Federal agents broke up the ring last July when they arrested the Agustins and eventually charged seven others, including several sailors and civilian employees with access to Navy computers and parts intended for at least four ships and two supply centers.

The government accused Franklin Agustin, an illegal alien living in San Diego, of coordinating the theft ring by placing orders between 1981 and 1985 for the F-14 jet fighter parts with the sailors and civilians, who then stole them from Navy stocks. Agustin took the orders from an Iranian living in England, and Edgardo Agustin, a naturalized citizen, used his East Coast company to ship the parts overseas, prosecutors said.

The parts were shipped first to England and then, prosecutors believe, to Iran, which at the time needed spare parts for its American-made jets. The parts included flight computers and parts for the Phoenix missile.

One of the sailors who stole the parts, 39-year-old Antonio Gatdula Rodriguez, also pleaded guilty Thursday to three felony counts. He faces 25 years and $750,000 in fines. The 17-year Navy storekeeper was accused of stealing $750,000 worth of military parts. Prosecutors said he used a telephone aboard a U.S. warship berthed in Bangor, Wash., to call Franklin Agustin about the stolen items.

So far, six people indicted in the case have pleaded guilty. Two, including Franklin Agustin’s wife Julie, are negotiating with the government. The Iranian is a fugitive in England.