DOJ: US Guardsman Arrested for Trying to Send Export-Controlled Radio to Russia
New Mexico resident Canyon Anthony Amarys, a U.S. national guardsman, was arrested last week after DOJ said he tried to provide an export-controlled radio to someone he believed was a Russian intelligence official. He was charged with attempting to violate the Export Control Reform Act.
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DOJ said Amarys met with someone he believed was a Russian intelligence agent in February and signed a one-page agreement to "confirm his covert relationship with a Russian intelligence service." He agreed to photograph a military installation in Fort Riley, Kansas, and provide an export-controlled helicopter radio for the Russian military, DOJ said.
The agency said Amarys bought the radio in March and traveled to Kansas to retrieve it and export it to a "purported recipient" in Romania. "In doing so, Amarys communicated with a person he believed to be a Russian intelligence agent, and confirmed his understanding that the radio would in fact be illegally diverted to Russia."
U.S. investigators eventually "recovered" the radio, DOJ said, adding that Amarys "understood that his shipment of the radio abroad was illegal." He also allegedly told the person he believed to be a Russian intelligence agent that he had "researched export regulations" ahead of their February meeting, the agency said.