LTTE agents sentenced to 25 years

The federal courthouse in Brooklyn on Tuesday sentenced Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam and Shailal Sabaratnam to 25 years in prison and five years of supervised release in connection with their efforts to purchase almost $1 million worth of high-powered weaponry for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a designated foreign terrorist organization according to a release by the US Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of New York.

The sentences were imposed by Chief United States District Judge Raymond J. Dearie.

In January 2009, Thanigasalam and Sabaratnam pleaded guilty to conspiring and attempting to provide material support to the LTTE. They also conspired and attempting to acquire guided surface-to-air missiles and missile launches.

The Defendants were caught in an FBI Undercover Sting Operation Attempting to Purchase Surface-to-Air Missiles, Missiles, Missile Launchers and Hundreds of AK-47 Automatic Rifles.

On August 19, 2006, Thanigasalam, Sabaratnam and two co-defendants were arrested on Long Island after engaging in negotiations with an undercover FBI agent to purchase and export 20 SA-18 heat-seeking missiles, ten missile launchers, 500 AK-47s, and other military equipment for the LTTE. The defendants were acting at the direction of senior LTTE leadership in Sri Lanka, including Pottu Amman, the LTTE’s chief of intelligence and procurement and the right-hand man to LTTE leader Velupillai Prabakaran. The LTTE intended to use the SA-18 missiles to shoot down Kfir aircraft used by the Sri Lanka military.

The defendants: Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam, also known as ‘Thani’ is 41 years old while Sahilal Sabaratnam, also known as “Sahil,” is aged 30.

Co-defendants Sathajhan Sarachandran and Nadarasa Yogarasa, who also pleaded guilty in January 2009 to related charges, were sentenced on Friday, January 22, 2010, to 26 and 14 years in prison, respectively.