Chief of counter-terrorism firm on missile charge

THE president of a counter-terrorism consulting firm has been charged with possessing 2,352 unregistered small military missiles.

Investigators also found 4,000 pounds of explosives at High Energy Access Tools, an anti-terrorism and police training company that was conducting classes for students from the United Arab Emirates and Yemen, said Tom Mangan, a US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agent. David Hudak, a Canadian national and president of HEAT, was arrested on Thursday and charged with possessing missiles not registered to him in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, according to a federal complaint filed late on Friday.

“Under the plain language of the criminal complaint ... at this time, this is a licensing and regulation issue, not a terrorism issue,” Assistant US Attorney Norm Cairns said. Cairns said the students are not suspected of any wrongdoing.

“None of those guys were arrested or charged with anything,” Cairns said yesterday.

Hudak’s wife, Leslie, reached in Vancouver, BC, said her husband’s plight came about partly because three employees had been dismissed and one sought revenge.

“We’ve always considered ourselves to be on the right side of the law,” she told BCTV and KRQE-TV in Albuquerque. The ATF agents were summoned for a search of HEAT facilities in Roswell and Tinnie on Thursday and were there “basically to handle all the explosives that were taken into custody,” Mangan said on Saturday.

He said the students, who were in the facility at the time, are cooperating with the investigation.

Frank Fish, director of security for HEAT, said after the arrest that the company had believed it was licensed to have appropriate equipment to train US allies and export them to allied nations, but later found out the permit was not filed. He did not specifically mention the missiles.

Fish also said the company invited agencies to inspect the Roswell and Tinnie sites because HEAT wanted to be sure it was compliant.

“We’ve been open to every federal agency that could have anything to do with anything about what we do for a living, from the FBI, ATF, Department of State, everybody,” Fish told the Roswell Daily Record.

“We contacted everybody, saying please come on down.”

The complaint, obtained by The Albuquerque Tribune for a story in Saturday editions, said agents discovered the missiles in 49 explosives crates, with each crate containing 48 warheads worth $23,040 apiece.

The complaint said the missile was known as the M141 Bunker Defeat Munition, a warhead designed to defeat light armoured vehicles or bunkers and fired from shoulder-mounted infantry weapons. No launchers for the warheads were found, the complaint said.

Hudak is a Canadian national in the country illegally, the complaint said. He was arrested by immigration agents at the company's training facility.