San Diego

A federal grand jury in San Diego indicted three Scottish businessmen and the operators of a Louisiana oil services company Friday on charges of conspiring to illegally export oil field equipment to Libya.

U.S. Customs agents arrested one of the Scots, 50-year-old Francis Christie of Aberdeen, and a Louisiana couple, George and Cheryl Smith, early this month in New Orleans after an undercover agent lured Christie to the United States, allegedly to discuss further shipments to Libya.

The 15-count felony indictment includes Christie’s partners in Christie Noble Services Inc., Robert Noble and Neil Williamson, as defendants, but both men live in Scotland and cannot be extradited for the alleged offenses, which are not illegal under laws there.

The five defendants are charged with conspiring to violate the embargo imposed by President Reagan last February on trade with Libya after attacks by Libyan-backed Palestinian terrorists at the Rome and Vienna airports late in 1985.

A Customs agent posing as a salesman for San Diego-based Solar Turbines Inc. sold the Smiths oil field equipment worth $250,000, according to the indictment. They sold the machinery to the Scottish firm, knowing it was intended for Libya’s nationalized, American-built oil fields, the indictment charges.