Models of Bomb Parts on Way Abroad Halted

Models of components for the latest U.S. cluster bomb were intercepted on their way to Saudi Arabia in packages shipped by three Los Angeles-area men accused of stealing restricted weapons plans, a government prosecutor disclosed Thursday.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Jeffrey Modisett said federal agents discovered models of a fuse, two inert bomblets and a bomblet cutaway in shipping cartons in New York City and the island nation of Bahrain. The two packages were addressed to the BSDE A & E Trading Co. of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Modisett described the material as restricted technical data. He said that the recovery probably will form the basis for two more counts against three defendants arrested last week and charged with conspiring to violate the federal Arms Export Control Act.

The government accused Richard H. Schroeder, 54, of Diamond Bar; Anthony Cenci, 61, Costa Mesa, and Richard P. Nortman, 59, Los Angeles, of stealing plans for the nation’s combined effects munitions weapons system, also known as the cluster bomb, and offering to show Saudi Arabia and Iraq how to build the weapon in return for up to $880 million.

Modisett told U.S. Magistrate Venetta S. Tassopulos on Thursday that Cenci and Schroeder were “in contact with high-level officials in other countries.” He specifically mentioned Prince Sultan ibn Abdulaziz of the Ministry of Defense and Aviation in Saudi Arabia and Commercial Counselor Yousef Abdul Rahman of the Iraqi Embassy in Washington.

Also, he said, documents recovered in a search of Schroeder’s house revealed that he had written a letter to the president of Iraq offering to have his Southern California firm, Westland Group International, build cluster bombs there.

Schroeder extolled the killing efficiency of the cluster bomb system against the massed, human-wave attacks by Iranians in a letter to Rahman.

“Short of nuclear weapons, there is no other conventional single weapon with such combined effectivity,” he said.

Daily Contact

At a Feb. 4 meeting monitored by FBI agents at the Marriott Airport Hotel, the government said Schroeder declared that he was in daily contact with his “people” in Saudi Arabia by telephone and telex.

Schroeder reportedly said the Iraqis wanted his company to come in and name the price to refit a facility to produce cluster bombs.

“We have our tickets, and we are going to Riyadh.” he was quoted as saying

When FBI agents interrupted another meeting at the Marriott last week and arrested the three defendants, Modisett said the defendants were preparing to fly to West Germany to talk to a munitions manufacturer, then go to Saudi Arabia.

Magistrate Tassopulos has denied bail for the trio in separate hearings.

In Thursday’s proceeding for Cenci, Modisett said Cenci had access to cluster bomb material when he worked at Aerojet Ordnance in Downey from 1982 until his recent retirement. The government’s theory is that Cenci stole the material, he said.

Modisett maintained that Cenci is “just as culpable” as Schroeder, who worked for Aerojet as a subcontractor manager from December, 1981, to March, 1986. Aerojet told FBI agents that Schroeder had been fired for trying to sell the cluster bomb system to Saudi Arabia.

Schroeder is listed as president of Westland Group International, which is described in seized company literature as having a staff of “munitions experts.” Cenci is named as an executive vice president and chief of operations, and Nortman is a minority stockholder.