A 50-year-old naturalized citizen from Syria who lived in Irvine was sentenced Friday to 32 months in federal prison for a conspiracy to sidestep U.S. sanctions imposed on exports to the civil war-torn country.
He admitted that he took part in a conspiracy to export U.S. tactical equipment to Syria to arm Ahrar al-Sham and other Syrian insurgents, fighting to oust Bashar Al-Assad in favor of an Islamic state, according to federal prosecutors in Washington, where the plea deal was struck.
Ahrar al-Sham partners with Jabhat al-Nusrah, which is a State Department-recognized terrorist organization as al-Qaida’s official representative in Syria, prosecutors said.
Baroudi and others acquired tens of thousands of dollars in weapons such as sniper-rifle scopes, night-vision rifle scopes, night-vision goggles, laser-bore sighters, speed loaders and bullet-proof vests in the United States and then transported the tactical equipment aboard commercial flights to Turkey, where they were later delivered to others to bring to the front lines of Syria’s war, prosecutors said.
Baroudi was accused of making two of those trips to deliver the equipment in February and March 2013, prosecutors said.
— City News Service