Plot to Get Nukes to Iran Through New York Banks Averted

Manhattan's district attorney unveils a plot by a Chinese national to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran through New York banks. Iranian intentions for nuclear bomb seen as clear.

The Manhattan district attorney's office has announced a 118-count indictment against a Chinese national in a plot to smuggle nuclear weapons materials to Iran through elaborate New York bank transactions to a number of fake companies - a broad and fraudulent front that exposes Iranian nuclear weaponry pursuits. "This case will cut off a major source of supply to Iran and it shows how they are going ahead full steam to get a nuclear bomb. Long-range missiles they pretty much have already," a law enforcement source close to the case told New York Daily News. Iran has long contended that its nuclear interests were for peaceful energy needs. "We think it is one of the largest suppliers of weapons of mass destruction to Iran," the source said to the New York Daily News. United Nations embargoes ban Iran from obtaining the materials needed to make a nuclear missile possible. According to the New York Daily News story, "The indictment will outline the financial conspiracy behind 58 different transactions, including shipments of various banned materials from China to Iran between 2006 and late 2008." Some of the details of the transactions detailed in the indictment include the transference of "33,000 pounds of a specialized aluminum alloy used almost exclusively in long-range missile production. 66,000 pounds of tungsten copper plate, which is used in missile guidance systems. 53,900 pounds of maraging steel rods, a super-hard metal used in uranium enrichment and to make the casings for nuclear bombs." Several New York banks were used, and none of the banks were aware of the plot. The suspect - who is not believed to be in the U.S. currently - set up four phony import-export companies to deliver materials to a subsidiary of the Iranian Defense Ministry.