(CBS) WESTMINSTER, Calif. A prominent Hmong leader residing in Westminster is among 10 people charged in an alleged plot to buy missiles, mines, assault r***es and other weapons to topple the communist government of Laos.
He is Gen. Vang Pao, a CIA-backed ally of the United States during the Vietnam War and a leader among Hmong refugees who settled in the state 30 years ago, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Also named in a federal complaint was former Lt. Col. Harrison Ulrich Jack, of Woodland, Calif., who allegedly met with an undercover agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to discuss air-dropping arms into Laos,
The Times reported. He allegedly acted as a go-between in arranging the arms deals.
Search and arrest warrants also were served in Chico, Sacramento, Stockton and Fresno, where the state's Hmong are concentrated, federal officials said, according to the newspaper.
During the Vietnam War, Laos was a secret battleground for the United States, which recruited tens of thousands of Hmong to disrupt North Vietnamese supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.
The group charged Monday allegedly wanted a total of $9.8 million in arms and had agreed to an initial payment of $150,000, according to the federal complaint filed in Sacramento, The Times reported. The arms were allegedly to
be delivered to a remote location in Thailand and smuggled into Laos later this month.
Though no weapons were delivered, the group allegedly was on the verge of launching a sophisticated plan to overthrow Laos' communist regime, The Times reported.
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