Four Charged in Illegal Shipment of Gear to Iran

Four people, including two officials of Beechcraft West Germany and the president of an Arizona aviation firm, have been charged with illegally exporting sophisticated radar navigational systems to Iran, according to indictments unsealed Wednesday.

The equipment was manufactured by San Diego-based Teledyne-Ryan Electronics, whose officials became suspicious of the purchasers and alerted the CIA, sparking an undercover sting operation that began in 1986 and was run by the U.S. Customs Service.

A salesman for Beechcraft also was charged. He and one of the Beechcraft officials were indicted in 1986, secretly pleaded guilty and participated in the complex sting operation run through Teledyne-Ryan. Additional indictments were returned by a federal grand jury in September, 1987, and again last Friday, but were kept secret until Wednesday when the president of Marsh Aviation Co. Inc. was arrested at the firm’s corporate offices in Mesa, Ariz.

Two shipments of the equipment worth about $200,000 were believed to have reached Iran before the undercover operation got under way, U.S. Atty. Peter K. Nunez said Wednesday.

Robert Steenberge, president of Teledyne-Ryan Electronics, said the first two shipments were sent to West Germany at the direction of the CIA, whose officials told him they wanted to monitor the deal before taking further action.

“Once the Customs team became involved in the case, we stopped any future shipments,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Phillip B. Halpern, who is in charge of the case. He described the equipment as “a state-of-the-art, lightweight fixed-antenna radar navigational system” produced primarily for American military use, but available for sale to firms in certain countries, such as West Germany.

“This navigational system supplies aircraft with an accurate, independent method for quickly responding to military orders,” Halpern said.

Beechcraft West Germany, formally called Beechcraft Vertrieb Und Service, is a West German corporation with a franchise to sell, service and distribute aircraft products manufactured by Beechcraft Aircraft Corp. of Wichita, Kan.

Nunez said Wednesday there is no evidence that the American firm participated in the scheme.

The first indictments, returned on Nov. 14, 1986, charged Bernd Pleuger, managing director of Beechcraft West Germany, and Juergen Zimmermann, a salesman, with conspiracy and illegal exportation. They pleaded guilty in a secret proceeding and cooperated with the sting operation, apparently continuing in their positions with Beechcraft as the investigation developed.

Hans Schneider, the owner and president of Beechcraft West Germany was indicted on Sept. 25, 1987, along with his company. Nunez said Wednesday that Schneider is a fugitive and prosecutors are pessimistic about the chances of having him extradited.

The final set of indictments was returned Friday and named Stilwell and his company.