5 Cited in Plot to Ship Missile Components

Five people, including an Egyptian lieutenant colonel who works in the procurement office of his country’s embassy here, were accused Friday of conspiring to smuggle to Egypt high-technology materials that could be used to manufacture a sophisticated missile system, the Justice Department announced.

Four of the people were arrested as a box containing carbon fiber, a lightweight heat-resistant material that can make rocket nose cones and aircraft less visible to radar, was about to be loaded onto an Egyptian C-130 military transport plane at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Customs Service officials said.

Fears ‘Missile Race’

The arrests come as the Reagan Administration is increasingly concerned about a “missile race” among Middle East nations and has been trying to curb it. Egypt, one of the United States’ closest allies in the Middle East, receives $2.3 billion in U.S. military and economic aid annually, second only to Israel.

Federal law enforcement officials in court documents filed in California sketched an elaborate scheme involving Egyptian diplomats and military officers who used diplomatic cars and an embassy building here, and payments of more than $1 million through a Swiss bank to obtain and ship the materials.

In court papers filed in Sacramento, the Justice Department charged that Abdelkader Helmy, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen of El Dorado Hills, Calif., who is a rocket propulsion specialist at the Aerojet Solid Propulsion Co. near Sacramento, directed the American end of the scheme in violation of U.S. export laws. Helmy, 39, allegedly had the materials purchased by James Huffman of Lexington, Ohio, who works as a Midwest marketing representative of Teledyne, McCormick, Selph, a defense aerospace company located in Hollister, Calif.

Shipped to Baltimore

Huffman would ship the supplies to Baltimore, where Mohamed A. Mohamed, an air force lieutenant colonel at the Egyptian military procurement office here, would arrange to ship them to Egypt, according to the complaint filed in the case.

Helmy, who holds a “secret” security clearance from the U.S. Defense Department, and his wife, Albia Eltayeb Helmy, who was also charged, allegedly received more than $1 million, wired to them from Switzerland between December, 1987, and March, 1988. The Helmys and Huffman were arrested and charged.

Mohamed was also detained, but he could not be held or charged because of his diplomatic immunity, the State Department said. A department official said that no decision has been made on whether to declare him persona non grata and expel him from the country, or to ask Egypt to waive his diplomatic immunity.

A spokesman said the department would discuss the allegations “with appropriate Egyptian authorities.” The spokesman said the department Friday afternoon called in Mohammed Diwany, the Egyptian Embassy’s second-highest diplomat, for an explanation.

Seeking to Recover $740,000

In a six-count criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, the five were charged with conspiracy, unlawful export of munitions items and money laundering. The government is seeking recovery of $740,000 in the Helmys’ savings account.

Mohamed was taken into custody at the airport Friday, while Huffman was arrested near Waldorf, Md., and brought to Baltimore. The Helmys were arrested and held in Sacramento. It was not known Friday night when they would be arraigned.

Another Egyptian official, Col. Hussam Yossef, who allegedly directed the operation from Salzburg, Austria, was the fifth person charged in the case. A 36-page affidavit also detailed Helmy’s alleged dealings with other Egyptian diplomats and officials, including Adm. Abdel Rahim Elgohary of the Egyptian Embassy’s procurement office and Lt. Col. Abdel Monem Mahmoud, a member of the embassy military office.

The Egyptian Embassy had no comment on the charges.