Thousand Oaks Arms Exporter Gets 10-Year Term, $2-Million Fine

An unlicensed arms exporter from Thousand Oaks was sentenced Wednesday to 10 years in prison and fined $2 million for making illegal shipments of missile parts to Iran.

Arif A. Durrani, 37, had been convicted in April in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport, Conn., after failing to convince a jury that he had arranged the shipments at the behest of the National Security Council as part of its efforts to free American hostages in Lebanon.

Durrani, a Pakistani citizen whose home sits on a five-acre hilltop tract at the end of Skelton Canyon Circle, had operated a firm called CAD Transportation in Thousand Oaks through which he arranged the shipments of electronics parts for Hawk anti-aircraft missiles, said U.S. Atty. Stanley A. Twardy Jr., who prosecuted the case.

He said CAD Transportation has an office in the 1200 block of Westlake Boulevard, a residential area.

‘Greed and Lies’

” . . . I find throughout this case . . . greed and lies, money and perjury, avarice and conniving,” said Chief U.S. District Judge T. F. Gilroy Daly. Durrani’s actions, the judge said, “might, under other circumstances, be considered by others as behavior bordering on treason.”

Durrani’s attorney, Ira Grudberg of New Haven, said he plans to file an appeal.

In a telephone interview, Grudberg said Daly had prevented the defense from admitting evidence that the lawyer said would have showed Durrani arranged the shipments on behalf of the U.S. government.

Specifically, Grudberg said, he had subpoenaed classified documents that show that Lt. Col. Oliver North, a key figure in the Iran- contra arms deal, “was looking for the same parts at the same time.” Some of the documents are mentioned in the Tower Commission report on the affair, he said.

After reviewing five classified documents requested by the defense, Daly quashed the subpoenas, ruling that the contents were either irrelevant or inadmissible.

The prosecution called witnesses from the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department who rebutted Durrani’s claims, prosecutor Twardy said.

The investigation began last fall when a representative of Radio Research, a defense electronics vendor in Danbury, Conn., told federal officials that Durrani, representing CAD Transportation, had approached them seeking missile parts, Twardy said. No officials of Radio Research could be reached for comment Wednesday.

Durrani was arrested Oct. 2, 1986, when he visited Radio Research to arrange a purchase and shipment of parts, Twardy said.

Twardy said that evidence was presented during the trial showing that, in addition to his arms exporting activities, Durrani had been regularly engaged in the unlicensed export of a variety of goods to Iran, including plexiglass, electronics parts and helicopter-engine fuel controls. CAD Transportation had made 11 shipments of such goods to the National Iranian Oil Co. through Belgium between June and September, 1986, Twardy said.

Consecutive Terms

The jury deliberated 90 minutes before delivering its guilty verdict on April 2, he said.

Daly sentenced Durrani to five years each on two counts of exporting missile parts to Iran without a license, with the terms to run consecutively. He was fined a total of $1 million on those counts.

Durrani was also sentenced to 10 years on one count of exporting defense articles without registration, to be served concurrently with his other prison time. He was fined an additional $1 million on that count.

Durrani had faced a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and $3 million in fines.