Israelis wanted for alleged illegal arms shipment that wound up in Colombia

GUATEMALA CITY (AFP) Aug 08, 2003
A Guatemalan court has ordered the arrest of three Israeli nationals for allegedly acting as brokers in the sale of a shipment of Nicaraguan police weapons to Panama that ended up in the hands of rightwing Colombian paramilitaries, a court source said Friday.

The court ordered the arrest of the three with the GIRSA company, Israelis Oris Zoller, Uzi Kisslevich and Shimon Yelinek Shrem.

They stand accused of illegally shipping firearms from Nicaragua to Panama that wound up in Colombia, court records show.

A scandal first surfaced in April 2002 when it emerged that arms sold to Panama's police force wound up in the hands of Colombian rightwing paramilitaries.

GIRSA had purchased the shipment from the Nicaraguan police but the 3,000 Russian-made AK-47s and five million 7.62 mm bullets were unloaded illegally last November in Puerto Turbo, Colombia.

Panama has maintained that Zoller and Kisslevich used fake identification and never acted in the name of the Panamanian police in their transaction with Nicaragua.

WAR.WIRE