Two Pakistani nationals have been extradited to the US from Spain on charges of conspiring to commit narco-terrorism, provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation and to unlawfully sell missile launching systems.
Pirzada Khawaja Abdul Hameed Chishti and Pirzada Khawaja Abdul Wahab Chishti were arrested, along with co-defendants Sohail Kaskar and Ali Danish in Spain in June 2014 at the request of the United States.
Hameed Chishti and Wahab Chishti, citizens of Pakistan residing in Spain, were extradited yesterday and were presented before a federal judge here.
US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara said the two planned to arm purported terrorists with military-grade weapons, believing they would be used to protect Colombia's revolutionary armed forces FARC's drug-trafficking enterprise.
"As alleged, Hameed Chishti and Wahab Chishti had no qualms selling multi-kilogram quantities of US-bound heroin to individuals they believed to be members of a terrorist organisation, the FARC," he said.
The indictment charges Hameed Chishti, 47, and Wahab Chishti, 49, with conspiring to commit narco-terrorism, to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organisation, to import heroin into the United States, and to unlawfully sell missile launching systems.
The US is also seeking extradition of the remaining defendants in the indictment, Kaskar and Danish, from Spain.
If convicted, each defendant faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a mandatory minimum term of 25 years in prison.
From 2013 through the date of their arrests, Hameed Chishti and Wahab Chishti and their co-defendants, Kaskar and Danish, participated in a conspiracy to import heroin into the US, to distribute heroin that would be imported into the country, and to support the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.
During the course of the narcotics negotiations, the purported FARC representatives indicated that the FARC was interested in buying "Iglas" - the name of Russian-made surface-to-air missiles - to protect its drug-trafficking business in Colombia.
In April 2014, Danish told the purported FARC representatives that three to five missiles could be delivered directly to wherever they were needed, and that a larger quantity of missiles could be delivered to the FARC in Colombia by diverting the missiles from a "legitimate" order.
