LOS ANGELES

A federal jury has convicted a black-market arms dealer of conspiring to acquire, transfer and use missiles designed to shoot down aircraft.

Rami Najm Asad-Ghanem, 52, a naturalized United States citizen who was living in Egypt at the time of the offenses, was found guilty of the missile conspiracy charge late Thursday afternoon in United States District Court.

The evidence at trial showed that Ghanem conspired to transfer a wide array of different surface-to-air missile systems to customers around the world, including clients in Libya, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and other countries.

Prosecutors presented evidence, including Ghanem’s electronic communications, his recorded statements, and the corroborating testimony of co-conspirators taken abroad, that demonstrated he conspired to use Russian-made Igla and Strela surface-to-air missile systems by brokering the services of mercenary missile operators to a militant faction in Libya in 2015.

Among other actions, Ghanem negotiated the salaries and terms of service of the mercenary missile operators, coordinated their payment, facilitated their travel to Libya, and offered them a $50,000 bonus if they were successful in their mission of shooting down airplanes flown by the internationally recognized government of Libya.

“With the wide range of weapons being offered for sale, this case demonstrates the dangers of underground arms trafficking to the international community and to the security of U.S. forces operating abroad,” said United States Attorney Nick Hanna.

On October 29, Ghanem pleaded guilty to six other federal crimes arising from a variety of arms-trafficking activities, including the unlicensed export of weapons and ammunition, smuggling, money laundering and unlicensed arms brokering.

The investigation into Ghanem started in mid-2014, when a Los Angeles-based supplier of military supplies alerted the U.S. government that it had been solicited to provide equipment to Ghanem.

During an undercover operation, an HSI agent developed a relationship with Ghanem, who was seeking to procure a number of armaments – including sniper rifles and night-vision optics – but Ghanem affirmed that the transactions had to be “under the table.”

Rami Najm Asad-Ghanem faces significant time behind bars for his crimes, and the community is safer thanks to the diligent efforts of federal law enforcement authorities.

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