2 more Canadians arrested in Tamil Tigers investigation
Last Updated: Thursday, August 24, 2006 | 12:42 AM ET
CBC News
Two more Canadian men have been arrested in an alleged conspiracy to buy weapons for the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
Ramanan Mylvaganam, 29, appeared in a Brampton, Ont., court on Wednesday. He was picked up the previous evening in Mississauga, the RCMP said.
Piratheepan Nadarajah, 30, was arrested in Toronto on Wednesday evening and will appear at the Brampton court on Thursday.
They are the fifth and six Canadians to be arrested in the alleged plot, which is being investigated by law enforcement agencies in Canada and the U.S. At least 14 people are in custody, with arrests also made so far in Buffalo, N.Y., San Jose, Calif., Seattle, Wash., and Connecticut.
Three of the Canadians were arrested in the U.S. last weekend, after investigators alleged they tried to purchase from undercover agents surface-to-air missiles and hundreds of AK-47 assault weapons.
They were identified as Sathajhan Sarachandran, Sahilal Sabaratnam and Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam.
Suresh Sriskandarajah, 26, was arrested in Ontario on Monday.
The trio arrested in Canada are likely to face extradition to the U.S., according to RCMP Sgt. Michele Paradis.
Paradis wasn't able to comment on what led to the latest arrests.
"There is an effort made to determine where the alleged criminal offence happened and that's the jurisdiction in which the charges will be laid. In this case those charges were laid in the U.S.," she said.
"Any information to specifics on the charges have to come solely from the U.S. authorities."
Some of the accused also face charges of attempting to bribe U.S. federal officials into having the Tigers removed from the government's list of terrorist organizations, and of trying to obtain classified information.
The Tigers have been engaged in a violent campaign for independence since the early 1980s. More than 65,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
A ceasefire in 2002 has all but collapsed in recent months, leading to hundreds of casualties.
Canada added the Tamil Tigers to its official list of terrorist organizations in April, nine years after the U.S.
Congressman's trip to Sri Lanka probed
Meanwhile, the investigation has led to increased scrutiny for a U.S. congressman who took a trip to Sri Lanka in 2005.
The Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday that law enforcement officials allege that the money for a trip taken by congressman Danny Davis and an aide actually came from the Tigers.
Davis said he knew the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America was "associated" with the Tamil Tigers but did not realize that the trip's costs were covered with funds controlled by the rebel group,
The Democratic representative said he took the trip in the wake of the December 2004 tsunami, after Tamils in his district expressed concern that relief funds raised in the U.S. were not being distributed equitably in Sri Lanka.
The Tribune reported that Davis has accepted 47 trips paid for by private groups since 2000, one of the highest totals in Congress. The five-term congressman is up for re-election in November.
With files from Canadian PressShare Tools
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