An Indian-origin Singaporean has been deported home from the U.S., after he had completed a jail term for offences related to trying to buy arms worth $900,000 for Sri Lanka’s outlawed separatist group LTTE.
Balraj Naidu Ragavan, 51, returned to Singapore on December 16 after serving almost four years in a U.S. prison, The Straits Times reported on Saturday.
“As a convicted felon, Naidu is prohibited from re-entering the United States,” U.S. Customs Enforcement and Removal Field Office director Simona L. Flores, said in a statement.
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The businessman was extradited four years ago to face several charges in the U.S., including conspiring to export arms to the Tamil Tigers.
In April 2006, on being introduced to a U.S. undercover agent, Naidu negotiated to buy weapons worth $900,000, including grenade launchers, sniper rifles and machine guns.
One of his co-conspirators, Haniffa Osman, test fired several of the weapons in the summer of 2006 in Baltimore.
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About 28 tonnes of weapons and ammunition were airlifted to the island of Guam. Osman, 62, has completed a 37-month jail sentence and testified in Naidu’s trial in 2010 before returning to Singapore.
The plan had been to offload the U.S.-made weapons in international waters off the Sri Lankan coast, so that they could be picked up by the Tigers.
But the conspirators, which included two Indonesians and a Sri Lankan, were arrested after inspecting the arms and transferring a further $450,000.