A man pleaded guilty today to illegally trying to smuggle restricted military-grade night-vision sniper scopes out of the US to Ukraine.
Volodymyr Ponomarenko was charged in Brooklyn federal court with attempting to ship the high-tech devices overseas without a Customs export license that is required to transport restricted technology out of the country.
US Customs and Border Protection officers at New York's JFK airport had discovered the items in Dec. 2011 during a search of parcels destined for Ukraine, officials said.
Inside they found two night-vision rifle sniper scopes, a thermal imaging camera, and three high-powered sniper scopes, Brooklyn federal prosecutors say.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents traced the shipment to a freight forwarder in Elizabeth, NJ., and eventually tracked down and arrested Ponomarenko - who is a citizen of Ukraine, prosecutors said.
Under federal law, certain types of rifle scopes cannot be exported without a special license from the US government out of concern that they might be diverted to terrorists, insurgents, or others who could utilize them to kill US armed forces overseas, officials said.
Ponomarenko faces up to five years in prison when he is sentenced.
Man pleads guilty to smuggling military-grade sniper scopes
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Man pleads guilty to smuggling military-grade sniper scopes
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Man pleads guilty to smuggling military-grade sniper scopes
