Head of Valley Firm Indicted for Shipping Toxic Waste Abroad

In another sign of the growing problem of global dumping, the head of a Chatsworth company has been indicted by a federal grand jury for illegally trying to ship more than a ton of hazardous waste to Pakistan, U.S. Atty. Lourdes G. Baird announced in Los Angeles on Monday.

The indictment charges Tariq Ahmad, 32, of Reno with attempting to transport hazardous waste to Pakistan and with setting fire, with two co-conspirators, to his Shankman Laboratories as part of a fraudulent scheme to collect $205,306 in fire insurance proceeds.

This is the second major hazardous waste export case filed by the U.S. attorney’s office here in the past 18 months. The earlier case led to the conviction of a man for illegally smuggling toxic material from California into Mexico.

“Today’s indictment represents my office’s strong commitment not only to prosecute hazardous waste violations in the Central District of California, but also to prosecute those who illegally dump our country’s hazardous waste in other nations,” Baird said.

She said the illegal transport of toxics to foreign countries is a growing problem. “This is the tip of the iceberg.”

The indictment also accuses Ahmad of mail fraud and perjury in connection with federal grand jury proceedings.

Ahmad, his brother Mobashir Ahmad, 30, of Reno and Rafat Asrar, 37, of Irvine were also charged with arson and conspiracy to commit arson stemming from the scheme to collect insurance proceeds after burning Tariq Ahmad’s Chatsworth laboratory where some of the waste was stored.

Monday’s announcement escalates the legal problems of Tariq Ahmad, who is scheduled to go on trial in April on state charges that he illegally transported hazardous waste from Orange County to Ventura County in 1989.

According to a 1990 study by the Center for Investigative Reporting in San Francisco, more than 2.2 million tons of toxic garbage cross borders each year.

The center study said that “a powerful economic equation drives the global trade in poisons: mounting piles of hazardous wastes, a shrinking supply of disposal sites, exorbitant profits for people who can get rid of it, legally or illegally, and cash-poor nations that will accept toxic waste in exchange for hard currency.”

A federal source said that proper disposal of hazardous waste in this country can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, compared to a few thousand dollars to illegally move it to a Third World country such as Pakistan.

David W. Wilma, special agent in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Los Angeles office, said that costs of legal disposal vary widely, depending on the nature of the hazardous material. However, “as a rule of thumb, it costs $1,000 to dispose of a 55-gallon drum of hazardous waste.”

The Nov. 30, 1989, fire at Shankman was staged to look like an accident, according to the indictment, which was returned by a federal grand jury last week and unsealed Monday.

Three weeks later, according to the indictment, Ahmad transported hazardous waste from Shankman Laboratories to another company, Castelazo and Associates in Los Angeles, which did not have a permit to store such material.

Then Ahmad allegedly had the waste placed on a ship bound for Pakistan, without the consent of the Pakistani government. The material was placed in hundreds of containers that were not properly labeled, Wilma said.

However, the toxic waste was intercepted at a port in Dubai after the Pakistani government got a tip about the shipment, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Stephen A. Mansfield.

Mansfield said the chemicals were placed in another ship, returned to Los Angeles and disposed of by the EPA.

If convicted on all federal charges, Ahmad could be sentenced to 78 years in prison and fined $3.75 million, although such stiff penalties would be unusual for the type of crimes alleged in this case. The other defendants each face a maximum 25 years’ imprisonment and a fine of $500,000.

The charges were the product of a joint federal and state task force on environmental prosecutions, which also includes the U.S. Customs Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

All three defendants were arrested late last week and are in custody, Mansfield said. Attempts to reach the defendants and their attorneys were unsuccessful.