Traveler Accused of Smuggling Attempt

A man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport over the weekend as he was about to board a flight for China with a sophisticated infrared camera used in missile guidance and reconnaissance systems, it was disclosed Monday.

Authorities said Jeffrey Jhyfang Lo, 52, of Cypress was working at the direction of a Chinese corporation linked to the People’s Liberation Army.

Lo, the target of a seven-month investigation, was taken into custody by Customs agents Saturday night as he walked down a jet way to board a China Airlines flight to Wuhan.

He was charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act and held pending a bail hearing today before a Los Angeles federal magistrate.

Lo, a naturalized U.S. citizen, purchased the infrared thermal imaging camera and two lenses for $142,000 from an FBI agent who was working undercover at a Santa Barbara defense firm, according to a court affidavit.

The camera, which weighs less than 10 pounds, and the lenses were found in Lo’s checked baggage.

An investigator familiar with the case said the camera “is a technological improvement over the night vision devices used in [Operation] Desert Storm,” the 1991 war with Iraq.

The device can be legally purchased by anyone in the United States, but its export is tightly regulated.

Authorities familiar with the case said Lo intended to smuggle additional cameras to China if the first attempt had succeeded.

Lo’s wife, Betty Yen, 43, told The Times that Lo has called her several times from the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles and acknowledged having made “a mistake.”

“He didn’t know that he must report this [exporting the camera] first. He didn’t know he needed permission first. He does everything legal; this time he made a mistake,” Yen said.

She said her husband started a business, East Techno Service Co., in October 1998, running it out of their apartment. “He buys things from American businesses and sells them in Taiwan and China,” Yen said.

Yen said that they have lived in the United States about seven years and have a 7-month-old daughter.

“He works very hard, but we don’t have much money. I asked him if he needed a lawyer, but he said I shouldn’t worry,” Yen said. “I don’t know what to do. We have no friends here, and I don’t know anybody. I wish my husband will come back soon.”

In an 18-page affidavit filed in federal court, Customs agent Shane Folden said Lo contacted the FBI agent last summer at the defense firm where he was posing as marketing manager. The firm’s name was not revealed.

Initially, the affidavit said, Lo expressed an interest in buying 38 of the cameras for the Chinese State Shipbuilding Corp., an arm of the State Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

The commission presides over a vast, interlocking network of companies dedicated to obtaining technology for China’s military services, according to the affidavit.

Lo allegedly showed the agent an e-mail message from his contacts in China saying that two other firms, one from France and another from Israel, were vying to supply similar cameras in a deal worth $3 million.

During one business meeting, the FBI agent asked Lo if the Chinese State Shipbuilding Corp. was engaged in weapons development, the affidavit said.

“They won’t tell you that it’s for military use,” Lo reportedly replied, “but anyone can clearly see it when you’re there.”

Another time, Lo allegedly confided to the agent that the only way to earn decent commissions was by smuggling restricted items out of the United States.

During one of many secretly recorded meetings, Lo allegedly told the undercover FBI agent that he knew it was illegal to export the camera and lenses without a license from U.S. authorities.

The affidavit quoted Lo as warning the agent, “I don’t want to see you play any, like, FBI stuff on me. I’m serious.”

A deal to purchase a single camera on Jan. 25 fell through when Lo failed to come up with the money, authorities said. On Feb. 3, using $5,000 in cash and a $137,000 cashier’s check drawn on an East Techno Service Co. bank account, they said, Lo bought the camera and two lenses. He picked them up six days later and took them to his Cypress apartment. He was placed under 24-hour surveillance until he was arrested at the airport.