Charges are first using 2004 law

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A federal grand jury indicted two men Wednesday on allegations they conspired to smuggle surface-to-air missiles into the United States for use abroad. Such missiles are designed to bring down aircraft.
The U.S. attorney's office said the charges marked the first time a 2004 anti-terrorism law has been used. The law calls for a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years and the possibility of life in prison without parole if convicted.
Chao Tung Wu, 51, and Yi Qing Chen, 41, are naturalized U.S. citizens born in China, authorities said. The conspiracy did not involve domestic terrorists, and the two men were told by an undercover agent that the missiles would be sent abroad, said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.
The indictment specified that bribes, including one for $2 million, were to be paid to certain foreign officials. Authorities declined to identify the countries involved.
Gerson Horn, an attorney for Wu, said that an undercover agent had tried to buy weapons from Wu and that Chen was allegedly involved in the negotiations. He said the agent "initiated the negotiations and persisted in the negotiations but it never bore fruit ... with either one of them."
He said that his client was innocent and that the case was "conceived, nurtured and orchestrated by the undercover agent, who worked this case for a number of years."
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