California man arrested for smuggling scopes, equipment to Syria

By Chris Eger

The Syrian-born owner of an Orange County check cashing business was taken into custody Tuesday by federal agents for illegally exporting rifle scopes and other equipment to the conflict-ravaged country.
Rasheed Al Jijakli, 56, of Walnut, was charged this week in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana with smuggling assorted military gear and rifle parts to his native country as part of a ring of fellow Syrian and Kuwaiti-born individuals.
Court documents hold that, from January 2012 through March 2013, Jijakli and three others bought firearms optics and other “tactical equipment” from a series of five companies in Arizona, California, and Washington. The items included at least 85 tactical scopes with rangefinders, 43 laser bore sighters, six two-way radios, ballistic vests, and 27 night vision scopes.
Jijakli then traveled to Syria in July 2012 aboard a Turkish Airlines flight with some of the purchased goods but without an export license. He later allegedly transferred the items to unnamed rebel groups in Syria in violation of numerous federal laws including violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
In 2004, President George W. Bush approved an Executive Order prohibiting the export of certain goods to Syria, and one of Jijakli’s unnamed co-conspirators warned him to be

Source: Guns.com