Exportation of American product to Syria except for food and medicine is prohibited. (Representational)
US federal court charged a California-based businessman with smuggling military equipment to Syria.
In an indictment on Wednesday, Rasheed Al Jijakli was accused of illegally providing rifle scopes, laser bore sighters used for adjusting sights on firearms as well as radios and bulletproof vests to Syrian fighters, reports Xinhua news agency.
Jijakli, 56, operates a check-cashing company in Orange County.
The indictment does not specify which faction in the Syrian civil war took the equipment illegally exported by Jijakli.
According to an executive order of the Department of Justice issued in 2004, exportation of any American product to Syria except for food and medicine is prohibited.
The indictment alleges that Jijakli, along with three other "co-conspirators" who were all born in the Middle East, bought the tactical equipment from unnamed businesses in California, Arizona, Arkansas and Washington.
From January 2012 through March 2013, Jijakli and three other individuals purchased and smuggled export-controlled items to Syria without obtaining licenses from the Department of Commerce. Jijakli and others allegedly hand-carried the items through Istanbul, Turkey and provided them to fighters in Syria.
Those items allegedly included day-and night-vision rifle scopes, laser boresighters (tools used to adjust sights on firearms for accuracy when firing), flashlights, radios, a bulletproof vest and other tactical equipment.
If convicted of all three charges, Jijakli could face up to 50 years in federal prison.