Alleged Weapons Machinery Supplier to North Korea Arrested in Tallinn
Taiwanese citizen Alex Tsai, 67, suspected by the US government of supplying weapons machinery to North Korea, has been arrested in Tallinn at the request of US officials.
Tsai was detained on May 1 and placed under a 30-day arrest the following day. Prosecutors are currently awaiting extradition documents from the US.
According to a May 6 release from the US Department of Justice, Alex Tsai, whose full name is Hsien Tai Tsai, and his son Gary Tsai, 36, a Chicago resident, were picked up by Estonian and US authorities on the same day.
Both are facing charges of "conspiring to violate US laws designed to thwart the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction" and money laundering, according to US federal law enforcement officials.
Prosecutors have alleged that the two were associated with companies in Taiwan that had purchased and exported machinery from the US that is used to fabricate metals and other materials with a high degree of precision.
The US Treasury Department has said that Alex Tsai has been supplying goods with weapons production capabilities to a North Korean company since the late 1990s.