By JOSH MITCHELL
Editor
River Mississippi News
PORTLAND, OREGON — A man who resides across the Interstate 80 bridge from San Francisco in Oakland, Calif. will spend a year in prison for a tin-foil-wrapped gun shipping scheme involving a Middle East country 830 miles from Iraq.
His name is Fares Abdo Al Eyani (E-Ah’nee). He is 41 years old and from Oakland, Calif. and the gun-shipping crimes involved an intent to ship the items to the Sutltanate of Oman, DOJ officials said.
The case also involves alleged cybercrime, officials said.
The DOJ website says the Sultanate of Oman is “a hereditary monarchy with a population of 3.3 million, including approximately one million nonnationals. Sultan Qaboos al-Said has ruled since 1970.”
His wife, Saba Mohsen Dhaifallah, 42, is also an Oakland resident and got three years’ probation for giving false statements to FBI special agents during her husband’s investigation.
He was also given an extra one day in prison in addition to the 12 months.
U.S. authorities say Al Eyani (E-Ah’nee) was formally convicted of federal charges of “conspiring to export defense articles and attempting to export defense articles,” according to a Department of Justice press release issued Friday.
DOJ National Security Division Assistant Attorney General Mathew G. Olsen said Eyani criminally tried to “smuggle” guns and ammunition from overseas and will be held accountable in prison.
“The unlawful trafficking of U.S. weapons overseas represents a threat to public safety and national security and will be met with the full force of the Justice Department,” Olsen stated in the Friday release.
Al Eyani had guns, clips, over four dozen rifle scopes, “monoculars” and “goggles with night vision abilities,” it adds.
He took the guns apart, wrapped them in foil and put them in vehicles in a “shipping container” destined for the Sultanate of Oman from the Port of Oakland.
The reason Al Eyani took the guns apart was to hide them, federal officials said in the press statement after the one-year and one-day sentence was handed down.
Law enforcement officials “thwarted” the tin-foil-hidden gun export scheme by looking into the containers, where they oversaw the controlled seizure of the weapons and components, including the goggles and rifle scopes.
The investigation is under the umbrella of a national security mission, specifically counterintelligence and export control, and also pertains to international arms trafficking and “implements of war,” authorities said.
Shipping weapons and other items abroad requires a license from and registration with the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, the news release noted.
President Joe Biden as authorized by executive order his authority on this matter to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs and Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, the press release added.
The guns, clips, ammo, scopes and night-vision goggles Al Eyani tried to send to the Sultan of Oman are classified under U.S. law as “defense articles” expressly forbidden from “export without a license,” U.S. authorities demonstrated in federal court.
The convictions of Al Eyani and his wife were brought to successful prosecution following the investigation by the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and Customs and Border Protection.
