WASHINGTON - A British man is under arrest on charges of attempting to buy a U.S. fighter plane to kill former Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, authorities said Friday.
David Brian Tomkins, 63, was arrested at George Bush International Airport in Houston this week on a flight from London by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He had intended to attend survival training courses at Fort Bliss, Texas, authorities said.
A detention hearing was scheduled for Friday in Houston.
Tomkins was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami in 1994 on charges of attempting to buy an A-37 Dragonfly fighter plane three years earlier from undercover federal agents. Tomkins gave the agents a $25,000 down payment in December 1991 for the Vietnam-era plane, according to the indictment.
The plane, officials say, was to be used to bomb a Colombian prison then housing Escobar, who ran the now-defunct Medellin drug cartel. Tomkins sought to buy bombs as well and to obtain a Bell helicopter to survey the prison after the attack, officials say.
Federal authorities also say Tomkins told them he was a mercenary and was to be paid $10 million by the rival Cali drug cartel to assassinate Escobar. Escobar was killed in 1993 by Colombian police after escaping from prison.
Tomkins had fled the United States shortly after the late 1991 meetings with the undercover agents. He later called the agents to say he had been warned he was the target of a federal sting operation.
Michael J. Garcia, acting chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the arrest "removes a key player from the ranks of international arms dealers."
Tomkins is charged with conspiring to export the A-37 jet without the required State Department license, a violation of the Arms Export Control Act.
David Brian Tomkins, 63, was arrested at George Bush International Airport in Houston this week on a flight from London by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. He had intended to attend survival training courses at Fort Bliss, Texas, authorities said.
A detention hearing was scheduled for Friday in Houston.
Tomkins was indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami in 1994 on charges of attempting to buy an A-37 Dragonfly fighter plane three years earlier from undercover federal agents. Tomkins gave the agents a $25,000 down payment in December 1991 for the Vietnam-era plane, according to the indictment.
The plane, officials say, was to be used to bomb a Colombian prison then housing Escobar, who ran the now-defunct Medellin drug cartel. Tomkins sought to buy bombs as well and to obtain a Bell helicopter to survey the prison after the attack, officials say.
Federal authorities also say Tomkins told them he was a mercenary and was to be paid $10 million by the rival Cali drug cartel to assassinate Escobar. Escobar was killed in 1993 by Colombian police after escaping from prison.
Tomkins had fled the United States shortly after the late 1991 meetings with the undercover agents. He later called the agents to say he had been warned he was the target of a federal sting operation.
Michael J. Garcia, acting chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the arrest "removes a key player from the ranks of international arms dealers."
Tomkins is charged with conspiring to export the A-37 jet without the required State Department license, a violation of the Arms Export Control Act.
