A weapons smuggler and five cohorts who schemed to sell more than $1 million in powerful anti-aircraft missiles and other military equipment to an FBI informant were convicted in Manhattan yesterday on a string of arms-trafficking charges yesterday.
Armenian-born Artur Solomonyan, 28, faces 50 years behind bars after a federal jury returned a guilty verdict on charges of weapons trafficking, conspiracy and illegal possession of a machine gun, among others.
The international smuggling ring set in motion a deadly plot to swipe stockpiled weapons from a former USSR military base, including shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank guided missiles and machine guns.
The weapons were “all designed to shoot down airplanes in the sky, all designed to pierce through armored tanks,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Berger told jurors in closing statements last week.
The feds played audio recordings of Solomonyan setting up the deal and expressing hopes the sale would bring in more business for the crew.
“Let it be 50 pieces. I just want something that I am showing to him. We’ll see what happens later. The first one is the hardest. The rest will follow freely,” Solomonyan said on one secretly recorded tape.