FBI charges businessmen with conspiring to send weapons to Sudan, Iraq

Anti-aircraft rounds, grenade launchers and automatic rifles are among the weapons of war Department of Justice officials say a pair of foreign businessmen conspired to purchase and send to Iraq and Sudan through a Florida-based company, according to a recently unsealed indictment.

Mohamad Majd Deiry, a Syrian national, and Samer Rayya, a Lebanese national, were charged in the Southern District of Florida with conspiring to illegally export the arms from the U.S. and with conspiring to commit international money laundering, Department of Justice officials announced Tuesday.

The pair are part owners of an Iraqbased company listed as sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department, according to the indictment. They remain at large and wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, officials said.

“These defendants allegedly ran an international arm trafficking ring and conspired to unlawfully export antiaircraft ammunition and other military arms and munitions from the United States to Sudan and Iraq, promoting violence and putting Americans and our allies at risk,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said in the announcement. “These charges exemplify the Justice Department’s commitment to investigating and holding accountable those who defy our U.S. export controls.”

The charges date back to 2016, according to the indictment. The arms exporting charges carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison, and the international money laundering charges a maximum of 20 years, officials said.

According to the indictment, the pair of dealers and co-conspirators were charged with attempting to send 23 mm anti-aircraft ammunition, Bushmaster 40 mm grenade launchers, FN SCAR assault rifles, FNH 5.7x28 mm green tip ammunition and HK MR762A1 long rifles. All are illegal to export without authorization, according to the indictment.

The deals included agreements to export hundreds of thousands of rounds of anti-aircraft munitions worth millions of dollars via Guatemala, the indictment says.

The charges refer to deals made between April and Nov. 15, 2016, the indictment says.

The operations spanned the globe, according to federal documents.

The pair were dealing through a company in Pompano Beach, just north of Fort Lauderdale, the indictment says, plus their own Iraq-based company Black Shield and Israelbased DM Management. Black Shield, based in Erbil, was incorporated in 2015, according to the indictment. It’s listed as sanctioned under President Joe Biden’s Executive Order 14038, aimed at “certain persons undermining democratic processes or institutions in Belarus.

The pair speak Russian, Arabic and English, according to their FBI wanted posters.

Deiry sent a $100,000 advance in a $4 million deal for 500,000 rounds of anti-aircraft munitions via a bank in West Africa to one in Florida in August 2016, the indictment says. They orchestrated similar deals in subsequent months, emails in the indictment reportedly show.

“These charges exemplify the Justice Department’s commitment to investigating and holding accountable those who defy our U.S. export controls.” Matthew G. Olsen Assistant attorney general