A Swedish citizen pleaded guilty before a U.S. federal judge on Wednesday for trying to sell weapons to the FARC in exchange of large amounts of drugs.
According to the U.S. Attorney Southern District of New York, the 43-year old Paul Mardirossion admitted that he had tried to sell rocket-propelled grenade launchers, AK-47 assault rifles, ammunition and grenades to the Colombian guerrilla group in April 2011.
The representative of the FARC turned out to be an undercover agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Mardirossion was arrested.
“Paul Mardirossian held secret meetings in countries all over the world for the purpose of supplying a violent terrorist organization with military grade weapons, including AK-47s and grenade launchers. He allegedly made these deals for large quantities of narcotics and with the understanding that the weapons would be used to harm Americans. This case underscores our ongoing commitment to work with our partners at the DEA to stop dangerous transnational criminals in their tracks,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
Mardirossian was arrested in Panama and in May was extradited to U.S. where he was charged with a total of six counts including conspiracy to engage in narco-terrorism, conspiracy to provide material to foreign terrorist organization, drug trafficking and money laundering.