MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US officials confirmed the two F-5 engines were legally sold to Malaysia

The engines have been in Uruguay since July 2008

United States officials confirmed before Uruguay’s Organized Crime Special Office that the two fighter planes F-5 engines found in a Uruguayan free zone had effectively been sold to the Malaysian government.

According to MercoPress sources the two security expert officers, with residence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were summoned to Montevideo to identify the two engines, valued in 28 million US dollars, which were legally sold to Malaysia but time after “appeared” in Uruguay as import equipment in deposit at a free zone, 100 kilometres from Montevideo.

Apparently the engines which were not declared as such but simply “industrial equipment” on entering Uruguay complied with local procedures and figure belonging to an Argentine company.

Once the US experts declared the two engines General Electric J-85 to be “war material” and therefore a “national security” item Judge Graciela Gatti ordered them under Police special forces custody, were they remain since their discovery at the end of January, allegedly following on a request from Malaysian officials to the Uruguayan Foreign Affairs ministry.

Uruguayan court sources said that the information supplied by US experts was “extremely positive” to try and establish the trail of the two engines, “which are part of a black market that sells these kind of military equipment to countries considered enemies of the US or without trade relations”.

Meantime it was revealed that Malaysian authorities have begun procedures for the return of the two engines that allegedly were stolen in 2007 but were only found missing sometime in mid 2008.

The disappearance of the two F-5 engines has turned into a major political scandal in Malaysia.

Uruguayan Customs chief Ricardo Prato said that “we intervened following on a claim presented by Malaysian authorities in the Foreign Affairs ministry. We went twice: first to check that the crates effectively were there and on the second day with a court order to inspect what was inside”.

“The Judge orders us to continue with the investigation; we consulted the Uruguayan Air Force and later questioned the customs brokers involved in the operation. The man has a good reputation and has been in the family business for decades” added Prato.

Meanwhile the president of the Florida Free Zone Luis Calachi said the Customs intervention and seizing of the crates “has nothing to do with the Free Zone”.

“From an international trade point of view the operation is totally normal, straight. The merchandise had a declared value of 190.000 US dollars and has been in deposit since July 2008. Now, whether they were stolen in Malaysia, Congo or wherever, there’s no way for us to know”, insisted Calachi.

He added that he has no knowledge about the Argentine company involved but “I have the best references of the Customs broker, a responsible man, no straw man or e-mail address”.

Calachi added that some months ago the two crates left for the port of Montevideo, allegedly for the US but they were soon back in the free zone “because the deal apparently fell through”.

Finally he stated he has not been summoned by court and Customs have been at the warehouse several times since.

“As far as I am concerned they paid 200 US dollars a month and there they were deposited, for me it was just another client”.

Judicial sources said that the first news of the international plot to bring the jet crates to Uruguay happened last December 24 when the head of the Malaysian Police Tan Sri Musa Hasan who was following the trail of the F.5E Tiger 11 and RF-5E Tigereye engines, landed in Buenos Aires.

The Northrop F-5 fighter plane was first flown in 1963 and production ceased in 1989. They were extensively used by US forces during the Vietnam conflict and in 1970 modifications were introduced to the original model from then on identified as F-5E Tiger II. A reconnaissance version was named Tigereye.

Currently it is estimated that 30 countries still have the F-5 fighter active and in South America three air forces operate them: Chile, Brazil and Venezuela. Some of the countries that still have them but are exposed to a US arms embargo include Iran, Sudan and Venezuela.