Officials probe NZ link to arms-laden plane

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New Zealand authorities are investigating local links to a weapons-laden aircraft seized in Bangkok - apparently working for arms traffickers in East Europe.

The Ilyushin-76 aircraft, found to be carrying weapons including rockets and grenades, was most recently registered under a company called Beibars, linked to the Serbian arms dealer Tomislav Dmanjanovic.

Overseas reports suggest the plane was flying under a contract for a mysterious Auckland-based company, when it left North Korea last week carrying 35 tonnes of missiles, explosives and other armaments.

It had previously been registered with three companies identified by the US Department of the Treasury as firms controlled by the notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, according to a researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), The Times newspaper in London reported.

A New Zealand police spokesman at national headquarters, Grant Ogilvie, said police were "awaiting further information" .

He referred inquiries to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has for two days been repeating only: "We are indeed aware of this issue and the alleged link to New Zealand. We are urgently seeking more information."

James Funnell, a senior private secretary to Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully, told the Bloomberg newsagency: "We are investigating."

The Russian-made aircraft was managed by Air West, a Georgia-registered carrier, hired to transport the cargo by SP Trading, according to Air West director Nodar Kakabadze and documents, the Wall Street Journal reported.

SP Trading is registered with an Auckland address, according to the Companies Office. Its sole shareholder is Vanuatu-based GT Group Ltd, in Queen Street.

SP Trading doesn't have a directory listing and a call to a number listed for GT Group went straight to a fax machine. 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".

Mr Kakabadze said he had no information about SP Trading.

"We signed a contract with SP Trading November 4 this year to carry out some flights. That's it," Mr Kakabadze told the Wall Street Journal.

"I know nothing more about the company, and we'd never worked with them before."

A copy of the lease agreement between Air West and SP Trading, obtained by Georgian aviation officials, listed a person named Lu Zhang as SP Trading's director. Companies Office records indicate SP Trading was incorporated in July of this year and also list Lu Zhang as its director.

Attempts by journalists to locate Lu Zhang and contact SP Trading have so far been unsuccessful .

SP Trading has a single New Zealand shareholder, which in turn has one shareholder, a company with offices in Vanuatu.

According to its website, the Vanuatu company provides offshore company incorporation and nominee services. Attempts to reach that company by phone over two days were unsuccessful.

The plane stopped for fuel on December 12 in Thailand, where officials seized the aircraft at Bangkok's Don Muang airport, acting on tip-offs from US and other intelligence agencies that the plane had been carrying North Korean weapons in contravention of a UN security council ban on arms exports.

Its five-member crew, from Kazakhstan and Belarus, remains in detention in Bangkok and all five have denied knowledge there were weapons on board.

Ukraine said it had also launched an investigation into the Ilyushin-76 aircraft, amid speculation that it may have been transporting arms to Iran as part of a North Korean smuggling network used to fund North Korea's banned nuclear weapons programme, The Guardian reported.

- NZPA