American companies have shipped large quantities of substances that can be manufactured into chemical weapons to Middle East countries, U.S. Customs officials have discovered.
The U.S. shipments were uncovered as Customs officials stepped up scrutiny of chemical exports, following revelations that West German firms were involved in shipping chemicals to Libya for use in an alleged poison gas plant.
According to recent reports in The New York Times, Iran was able secretly to recruit the help of companies in Germany, the United States and Asia to increase its stockpile of chemical weapons.
Subsequent inquiries also reveal shipments of chemicals to Jordan and then, officials believe, to Iraq. Presumably such chemical weapons could be used against Israel.
The findings came to light during U.S. Customs investigations of a Baltimore firm, Alcolac International, whose records drew attention because of their use of vague terminology indicating the chemicals’ destination.
American export law requires special licensing of chemicals that can be used in the production of poison gas and completely forbids their shipment to Iran, Iraq and Syria.
The findings of the investigations came to light when American court documents were recently made public in Baltimore.
USED TO PRODUCE MUSTARD GAS
The investigations of Alcolac revealed that an Iranian diplomat, Seyed Kharim Ali Sobhani, working through the Iranian Embassy in Bonn, arranged three shipments in 1987 and 1988 of thiodiglycol, a chemical used in the manufacture of mustard gas.
The first two shipments, totaling 90 tons, went through. But the third, weighing 120 tons, was intercepted by Customs, which substituted water for the chemical and then traced its passage.
It is estimated that a ton of thiodiglycol yields at least a ton of mustard gas; 120 tons will cover an area of about 60 square miles. Thiodiglycol is also used in the manufacture of ink and textile dyes.
To avoid the appearance of breaking U.S. export regulations, the shipping of the chemical was effected through circuitous routes, via Thessaloniki, Greece; Karachi, Pakistan; and Singapore.
On Monday, federal officials in Baltimore announced the arrests of an official of a Brooklyn, N.Y., company and of a Dutch businessman. They were charged with organizing illegal export of these chemicals to Jordan, which they allegedly purchased from Alcolac.
Officials believe the ultimate destination of the chemicals was Iraq.
Nicholas Delfino, an official of the Nu Kraft Mercantile Corporation of Brooklyn, and Frans van Anraat, a Dutch citizen identified as both a European representative and customer of Nu Kraft, were arrested last weekend.
Delfino surredered himself in Baltimore, where he is free on $500,000 bond.
Van Anraat was arrested at his home in Italy, and pertinent documents found there were seized by Italian officials. America has asked that Italy extradite van Anraat.
Alcolac pleaded guilty Monday to one count of knowingly violating export laws.
Documents show that Nu Kraft bought four shipments of thiodiglycol, totaling 500 tons, from Alcolac between November 1987 and March 1988.
They were shipped via Norfolk, Va., to Antwerp and Rotterdam. Documents indicate the chemicals were destined for customers in Western Europe.
There shipments went to Jordan. The destination of the fourth is unknown.
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