A trio of bumbling Egyptian arms dealers conducted a weapons purchase with an undercover agent in front of Rockefeller Center in 2011, prosecutors said in Brooklyn federal court.
Amir Zakaria Astafanos, Malak Neseem Boulos, and Amged Kamel Tawdraus were arrested for conspiring to purchase and ship one million bomblets – the mini-explosives used in cluster bombs – and a land mine to contacts in Egypt, prosecutors said today.
The men were repeatedly caught on recorded correspondence with an undercover agent negotiating ways to get the weaponry shipped back to their home country without alerting the proper authorities.
Zakaria told undercovers that he worked for an Egyptian company named AMA Group that dealt in weaponry and that he urgently needed the munitions.
When the agent told him that he needed proper authorization, Zakaria said he knew ways to avoid detection.
At one point, the trio packed up the items into a truck owned by a private shipping company in front of Rockefeller Center, according to a criminal complaint.
All three men were held without bail.
At least two of them had applied for asylum in the US before the bust but it was unclear what forces they are seeking to flee in Egypt.