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U.S. court sentences Armenian citizen to 22 years in prison for arms trafficking

07 March 2009 07:35 (UTC +04:00)

"I should have known better," Artur Solomonyan, 30, told a federal judge before learning his sentence. He said he had been irresponsible but got caught up in the scheme because he thought the informant could get him a green card.
Prosecutors said Solomonyan led a ring that conspired to import shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank guided missiles and other weapons without a license. The only weapons actually delivered were a dozen firearms, including a machine gun.
Solomonyan and five co-defendants were convicted in July of charges including arms trafficking and firearms trafficking conspiracy.
During the trial, prosecutors said greed spurred the group to try to get into a dangerous business: dealing in weapons designed to pierce armored tanks and shoot aircraft out of the sky.
Prosecutors said the case began when one of the defendants approached the government informant to ask about the sale of machine guns. The informant reported the offer to law enforcement and began making recordings, generating hundreds of pages of reports. Solomonyan said at his sentencing that he had once dreamed of winning a Nobel Prize in science.
"Maybe I was overconfident," he said, adding later: "I realized I failed, and it didnâ€™t start with the weapons â€” it started earlier."