Iranian Pleads Guilty as 8-Year Arms Smuggling Case Winds Down

An Iranian who helped mastermind a scheme to smuggle U.S. military hardware to Iran pleaded guilty Monday, capping an eight-year case in which a San Diego-based ring smuggled up to $10 million in jet parts to Iran.

Saeid Asefi Inanlou, 42, pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy to defraud and making false statements to investigators and will be sentenced on Jan. 16. He had been indicted on 51 counts of stealing government property, conspiracy, exporting defense articles without a license and making false statements to customs officials.

Inanlou, who avoided extradition in England for three years before his arrest last December, was freed on $1-million bail. According to a clerk for U. S. District Judge Leland Nielsen, Inanlou met bail by using $400,000 cash and securing the rest with properties posted by friends in Los Angeles and Contra Costa counties.

The smuggling ring was exposed in July, 1985, when U. S. Customs agents arrested brothers Edgardo and Franklin Agustin, Franklin’s wife, Julie, and several sailors. The Agustins were natives of the Philippines who recruited several Filipino sailors serving in the U.S. Navy to secure the jet parts. Franklin and Julie Agustin lived in Tierrasanta, and Edgardo lived in Jamaica, N.Y.

The Agustin brothers and Inanlou were called the ring’s masterminds by U.S. officials. Inanlou remained a shadowy figure throughout the case, because U.S. officials failed in their attempt to extradite him from England, where he was living. However, in 1988 Inanlou moved to Germany, where the State Department succeeded in securing his arrest and extradition.

Throughout the case, Nielsen repeatedly expressed frustration at several delays at extraditing Inanlou. In October, 1985, Nielsen ordered Assistant U. S. Atty. Phillip Halpern to expedite Inanlou’s extradition from England.

More than a year later, Nielsen lectured Halpern again when he learned that an extradition request had not been forwarded to British authorities. In a November, 1986, court hearing, Nielsen noted that he had already sentenced six of Inanlou’s co-defendants and wondered when he was going to be brought to trial.

Halpern could not be reached for comment Monday. His secretary said that “Mr. Halpern is not talking to the press.”

Inanlou and the other defendants succeeded in stealing sophisticated parts for the F-14 weapons system, including inertial navigation units and guiding mechanisms for the Phoenix air-to-air missile. At one time the ring was attempting to illegally purchase two angle-of-attack indicators from the Grumman Aerospace Corp. at North Island, but the deal was never completed.

Investigators said the ring operated between January, 1981, and July, 1985. The jet parts were stolen from Navy ships, as well as military warehouses in the Philippines, Norfolk, Va., and North Island Naval Air Station.