In September 2002, an undercover US agent working in Hong Kong exposed a drugs-for-missiles plot that involved the sale of four Stinger missiles destined for terrorist organisation al-Qaeda.
Three men were arrested and extradited to the US, and last month two of the men were sentenced. The men were charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organisation; all pleaded guilty.
Pakistani Saifullah Durrani, also known and charged as Muhammed Abid Afridi, was given a 57-month prison sentence by a US district court for his part in a conspiracy to trade heroin and hashish for the missiles and cash. His collaborator, Ilyas Ali, an Indian-born US citizen, received the same sentence. Both men have served most of their sentences.
A third man, Syed Mustajab Shah, from Pakistan, will be sentenced next month.
This case drew international attention because the men were arrested a year after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US. The Stinger missiles are capable of shooting down commercial airliners.