BORN:
Nabek, Syria, 1945.
LANGUAGES:
Arabic, English, Spanish.
KNOWN PASSPORTS:
Syrian, Argentine, Brazilian, Algerian and British; Spanish permanent residency.
INVOLVED IN KNOWN ARMS SALES WITH:
Argentina, Austria, Bosnia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chad, Croatia, Guatemala, Iran, Lebanon, Nicaragua, Panama, Poland, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria, the United States and Yemen.
ADDITIONAL KNOWN OR SUSPECTED ACTIVITIES:
Large-scale trafficking in cocaine, hashish and stolen cars. Widely investigated for arming various Palestinian terrorist groups and involvement in terrorist attacks in the 1980s. Offered French anti-ship cruise missile technology to Iran in 1997. Was offered the opportunity to broker the sale of $1.11 billion worth of submarines by the Argentine Defense Ministry. Falsely accused of many things (such as the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland) by conspiracy theorists in books and on the Internet.
CONNECTIONS:
Has had dealings or involvement with Oliver North and Gen. Richard Secord (Iran-Contra); the International Bank for Credit and Commerce (BCCI); former Argentine President Carlos Menem; Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) and its leader, Ahmad Jibril; Abu Abbas, leader of another PLO extremist splinter group, the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF), who orchestrated the Achille Lauro hijacking; the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Command (PFLP-SC) headed by Georges Habash; the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) headed by Naif Hawatmeh; and Abu Nidal, leader of the Fatah Revolutionary Council, a.k.a. Black September or Arab Revolutionary Brigades.
MOST RECENTLY:
Travels freely and lives comfortably in his hilltop mansion in Marbella, Spain, on the Costa del Sol. Known to have huge real estate and construction holdings; has gold mines and other interests in Argentina. Says he has not sold weapons for 12 years.
ALLEGED CRIMINAL ACTIVITY:
First arrested in Yabroud, Syria, for stealing cars.
1972: Arrested in Copenhagen for trafficking in hashish.
1974: Sentenced to 18 months in prison for selling hashish in the United Kingdom.
1977: According to a Swiss judicial investigation, his criminal career began to develop quickly at this point, as he established links with mafia groups, the PFLP-GC (extreme anti-Israel PLO wing) and the PLO, which helped him traffic arms, drugs and stolen cars, arm various terrorist movements, and get rich.
1984: Expelled from United Kingdom for drug and arms trafficking.
1985: In France, sentenced to eight years in absentia for operating a "criminal terrorist organization."
mid-80s: In Germany, fined $150,000 for possessing illegal passports.
1992: Swiss bank accounts frozen at Spain's request. Investigations begun for money laundering, lack of vigilance in financial operations, false documents and false foreign certificates. Arrested in Spain on charges of piracy and providing weapons for the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship by PLF terrorists, in which American Leon Klinghoffer was murdered.
1993: Released after serving nine months, on $15.5 million bail.
1995: Acquitted of all charges in Achille Lauro case.
2000: Indicted in Argentina for obtaining documents under false pretenses in the course of his 1992 acquisition of an Argentine passport with the help of high-level Menem administration officials.
http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/sierraleone/alkassar.html