Two Navy SEALs drowned in the Arabian Sea. How the US charged foreign crew with smuggling weapons

RICHMOND, Va. — Two Navy SEALs drowned last month while trying to board a ship intercepted by U.S. naval forces in the Arabian Sea. On Thursday, federal prosecutors opened a criminal complaint against four foreigners they say were carrying suspected Iranian missile parts on the ship.

The four sailors were later taken to Virginia, where they were criminally charged. Material witness warrants were filed against an additional ten crew members.

In an affidavit supporting the charges, an FBI agent wrote that the sailors admitted they left Iran after at least one of them initially claimed they had left Pakistan. All four sailors had Pakistani identity cards.

Prosecutors said they were smuggling missile parts for the type of weapons used by the Houthi rebels in recent weeks.

Here’s a look at the case and what comes next:

On the night of January 11, U.S. Navy Central Command forces, including Navy SEALs, along with members of the U.S. Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team, boarded an unflagged vessel described as a dhow in the international waters of the Arabian Sea, off the coast of the Arabian Sea. coast of Somalia.

U.S. officials have said that while boarding the boat, Navy Special Warfare Operator 1st Class Christopher J. Chambers slipped into the gap created by high waves between the ship and the SEALs’ battlecraft. When Chambers fell, Nathan Gage Ingram, Navy Special Warfare Operator 2nd Class, jumped in to save him, according to U.S. officials briefed on what happened. Both men were lost at sea. Attempts to find and rescue them were unsuccessful.

During a search of the ship, U.S. forces found and seized what an FBI official described as advanced Iranian-made conventional weapons, including critical components for intermediate-range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, a nuclear warhead and propulsion and guidance components.

According to the FBI affidavit, the type of weaponry found on the ship is consistent with that used by the Houthi rebels in recent attacks on merchant ships and U.S. military vessels in the region.

Navy forces conducted an “authorized flag verification” when they boarded the ship in international waters.

U.S. authorities may board a ship to verify whether it is authorized to fly its flag or to determine the nationality of an unflagged ship. Every country has the right under international law to board ships and check documentation of its nationality.

In this case, U.S. forces determined that the ship violated international law by not flying a flag in international waters. That made it a “vessel without nationality” under U.S. jurisdiction, the FBI statement said.

Navy forces ultimately determined the dhow was unsafe and unseaworthy and scuttled the ship “as per protocol,” the FBI agent wrote.

All 14 sailors on the ship were taken onto the USS Lewis B. Puller and later taken to Virginia.

Martin Davies, director of the Maritime Law Center at Tulane University Law School, said flag checks are becoming more common in drug investigations because ships smuggling drugs often hide signs of identification.

“It is clearly permitted under international law,” Davies told The Associated Press. “Any country would have the authority to do this.”

Some countries may not like the U.S. “throwing its weight into another part of the world,” Davis noted.

“But that is a political matter, not a legal matter,” he said.

The remaining 10 crew members are being held under the federal Material Witness Act. It allows courts to issue arrest and detention warrants against a person if that person’s testimony is “material to criminal proceedings” and if it becomes “impossible to secure the person’s presence by subpoena.”

The law attracted attention and sparked controversy when it was used in international terrorism investigations following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Defense lawyers have criticized the law because it could lead to people being held for long periods of time even if they have not been charged of or suspected of committing a crime.

A 2014 report from the Justice Department’s Inspector General identified 112 cases in which material witnesses were detained between 2000 and 2012. The average period of detention of these witnesses was 26 days.

All four sailors are being held pending preliminary and detention hearings scheduled for Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Richmond. A judge will determine whether the suspects should be held without bail pending trial.

Muhammad Pahlawan is accused of attempting to smuggle advanced missile components and providing false information to U.S. Coast Guard officers while boarding the ship.

Pahlawan’s co-defendants – Mohammad Mazhar, Ghufran Ullah and Izhar Muhammad – were charged with providing false information.

Melissa O’Boyle, Ullah’s attorney, and Charles Gavin, Muhammad’s attorney, declined to comment on the allegations. Attorneys for the other two suspects did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment Friday.

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Kunzelman reported from Silver Spring, Maryland.