NZ linked to suspected arms smuggling

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A New Zealand company has been linked to a cargo-plane seized in Thailand suspected of smuggling North Korea arms this week, possibly to the Middle East.

Agence France Presse quoted officials from Georgia linking New Zealand-registered company SP Trading to renting the plane - an Illyushin 76 aircraft to deliver its cargo.

The plane was seized at Bangkok's Don Muang airport late last week during a refuelling stop. It was discovered to contain 35 tons of weapons from North Korea, which is a violation of UN sanctions against Pyongyang.

According to the crew's Thai lawyer, the plane was registered to Air West, a cargo transport company in the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

Officials in Kazakhstan and Georgia said yesterday that the Air West plane was leased recently to SP Trading Limited for transporting cargo.

The company operates out of New Zealand, said Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ilyas Omarov.

SP Trading is registered through GT Group, based in Auckland's Queen St. GT Group appears to be a Vanuatu-based company listed on its website as "providing an extensive range of offshore company services for privacy, legal tax avoidance, asset protection, financial independence and freedom".

GT Group's New Zealand phone number as listed on the website did not work this afternoon.

The listed owner of SP Trading is another GT Group-listed company called Vicam (Auckland), which has a Vanuatu address. The owner of Vicam is GT Group, according to the Companies Office records.

Thai authorities today focused on the mammoth task of inspecting the weapons seized from the plane as its ultimate destination remained a mystery.

The five-man crew - four from Kazakhstan and one from Belarus - were denied bail on Monday and ordered to be held for an extendable period of 12 days. Charged with illegal arms possession, they face up to 10 years in prison but the charge and penalty could change depending on what inspectors find, he said.

The men were being held at Bangkok's high-security Klong Prem Central Prison.

Hugh Griffiths, a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the past owners of the aircraft have been documented by the United Nations as trafficking arms to Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and Chad. He said the plane also was used to ship arms from the Balkans to Burundi in October. The plane has since continued to change hands.

AFP reported the plane was previously registered in Kazakhstan and then sold to a Georgian airline in October before being leased to the New Zealand company.

Military analysts said on Monday that the arms were likely destined for African rebel groups or a rogue regime like Myanmar.

Impoverished North Korea is believed to earn hundreds of millions of dollars every year by selling missiles, missile parts and other weapons to countries such as Iran, Syria and Myanmar.

- AP