35-year-old Piratheepan Nadarajah and 32-year-old Suresh Sriskandarajah, two operatives of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or the Tamil Tigers, are being arraigned today before United States Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn after being extradited from Canada.

The two are being charged with Conspiracy and Attempting to Provide Material Support to the Tigers. Individually, Nadarajah is being charged with Attempting to Acquire $1 million worth of Anti-Aircraft Missiles, Missile Launchers, and other equipment. Sriskandarajah is charged further with Dealing in the Property of a Designated Terrorist Group.

The extradition and charges were announced today in New York. The U.S. Government requested extradition from Canada six years ago so they could stand trial in the United States. But, the two men spent the last six years working their appeals through the Canadian courts. The Canadian Supreme Court decided earlier this month that the men could and should stand trial in the U.S.

The Tamil Tigers, founded in 1976, were designated a Foreign Terrorist Organizationin 1997, and so, cannot raise money or buy equipment in the U.S.

Between July 1, 2006 and August 19, 2006, Nadarajah and several co-conspirators engaged in negotiations with an undercover FBI agent to purchase and export $1 million worth of high-powered weapons and military equipment for the LTTE, including 20 SA-18 heat-seeking, surface-to-air, anti-aircraft missiles; 10 missile launchers; and 500 AK-47s. Nadarajah and his associates attempted to acquire these weapons at the direction of senior LTTE leadership in Sri Lanka, including Pottu Amman, then the LTTE’s chief of intelligence and procurement and the top deputy to then-LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakharan. The anti-aircraft weapons were to be used by the LTTE to shoot down Kfir aircraft used by the Sri Lankan military.

From September of 2004 until April of 2006, Sriskandarajah as well as other co-conspirators helped another officer of the Tamil Tigers to research and acquire aviation equipment,submarine and warship design software and communications equipment then used students to smuggle the goods back to the Tigers. He also helped launder the money in the United States as well as other parts of the world.

If convicted of all charges, Nadarajah faces a minimum sentence of 25 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison, and Sriskandarajah faces a maximum sentence of 25 years of imprisonment.