Camera ’Sting’ Ends in Two Arrests

The US Customs Service has arrested two men accused of planning to export pan-tilt-zoom cameras and other unmanned aerial vehicle components to Pakistan.

Tauquir Khan, a Pakistani national living in Ames, Iowa, on a student visa, and his brother, Tanzeem Khan, a naturalized US citizen in Kansas City, Kan., are charged with conspiracy to violate the Arms Export Control Act.

The criminal complaint says the Khans ordered two pan-tilt-zoom cameras from BAI Aerosystems of Easton, Md., last April for export to Pakistan. In October, BAI told the Khans that the US State Department had denied an export license, but the men said they wanted the equipment anyway.

BAI notified US government officials. Undercover customs agents said the pair paid more than $25,000 for the cameras in January and provided documents indicating that the devices would be shipped to an end user in Germany. The criminal complaint says the Kahns planned to ship the cameras from there to the Advanced Engineering Research Organization in Pakistan.