U.S. authorities have arrested a 67-year-old man from Surrey, B.C., accusing him of smuggling banned goods to Pakistan’s military and its nuclear weapons program over more than 15 years.
The U.S. Department of Justice says in a Friday news release that Mohammad Jawaid Aziz was arrested trying to cross into the United States from British Columbia on March 21.
The department says Aziz, also known as Jawaid Aziz Siddiqui and Jay Siddiqui, smuggled “millions of dollars” worth of export-controlled items from the United States to Pakistan, including industrial workstations, a thermal conductivity unit and a centrifugal pump.
The partially unsealed indictment says Aziz owned and operated Surrey-based Diversified Technology Services and used the company “to procure U.S.-origin goods for prohibited entities in Pakistan” including the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
The Department of Justice says Aziz, a dual citizen of Pakistan and Canada, remains in custody as of Friday, pending transfer to Minnesota where the investigation is largely based.
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The indictment says Pakistan first tested a nuclear bomb in 1998, and the United States has imposed export restrictions on the country and entities linked to the Pakistani military programs since then.
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