A deal is done to ship 200 Chinese shoulder-fired missiles, capable of bringing down aircraft, to the US via the Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia. The US government, fighting illegal trade in these weapons, makes it a priority to foil the shipment, vowing to stop a terrorist attack such as September 11 happening again on its soil.
The daughter of a high-ranking Cambodian official allegedly agrees to take a US$2 million bribe to ensure the Chinese missiles escape detection in her country. A US Federal Bureau of Investigation officer is the undercover buyer and he's about to bust a multi-million-dollar weapons smuggling deal that would supply enough missiles to arm a regiment of soldiers.
This plot could be straight out of an Ian Fleming novel. But it was a real undercover operation codenamed Smoking Dragon, and these details form the FBI's court case against Chinese-Americans Wu Chao-tung, 54, and Chen Yi-qing, 41, who are the first people charged under a 2004 law that forbids the importation of aircraft-destroying missiles.
The missiles, Chinese military Qianwei-2's (QW-2), are designed for attacking aircraft at low altitude, possibly during takeoff or landing. Wu pleaded guilty on April 19 in a Californian court to the charge. The timing of his court appearance coincided with the visit of President Hu Jintao to Washington to hold talks with US President George W. Bush.
The missiles were never delivered in this spy story, but even so Wu will be sentenced on July 31. His alleged co-conspirator, Chen, goes to trial on June 27. Under US law both men face a minimum penalty of 25 years in prison and the possibility of life without parole.
There would be few people in the world who did not know that the US had declared war on terrorism and that its intelligence agencies were on high alert. This makes the bid to import illegal missiles in such a vast quantity into the US all the more puzzling.