The Michigan Daily-Thursday, May 14, 1981-Page 13
6 charged
'with arms
smuggling
HOUSTON (AP) - Bonds totaling $3.8 million were
set yesterday for six men, described by a prosecutor
as "international vagabonds," who were charged
with illegally trying to export 1,486 firearms and
ammunition to South Africa.
The six were arrested Tuesday night by federal un-
dercover agents who had purchased the military
hardware in Connecticut and trucked it to Texas, as
the million-dollar cargo was being prepared for
loading on a jet bound for South Africa, officials said.
TWO OF THE SUSPECTS, Peter Towers, 51, and
John Parks, 43, both of Great Britain, were'"mid-
dlemen who came to the United States to buy firear-
ms," said senior Customs agent Norman Buselmeier.
The other four were crewmen on the Boeing 707
jetliner, chartered from Montana Austria, a private
airline based in Austria.
The crated munitions were 1,146 fully automatic
M-16 rifles and carbines, 100 grenade launchers, 111
.45-caliber pistols, 89 9mm pistols, 40 assorted
smaller handguns, and 15,000 M-16 ammunition
magazines, Buselmeier said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Brown had asked for
bonds of $5 million each for Tower and Parks, saying
all six defendants "could be called interational
vagabonds." He said that in previous cases involving
alleged shipments to South Africa, that nation would
"post bond in cash and the defendants are never seen
again."
THE SIX WERE ACCUSED OF conspiring to ex-
port firearms without a proper State Department
"end-use certificate" in violation of the U.S.
Neutrality Act, punishable by fines of $100,000 and
two years in prison.
Customs officers said Parks and Towers ap-
proached a firearms dealer - a former Border
Patrol agent - who recognized their certificate as
fradulent and tipped Customs to their plans about
three weeks ago. They said the certificates said the
weapons were bound for Sudan in eastern Africa.
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