U.S. arrests 10 it says plotted to oust Lao government

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors charged 10 people on Monday with seeking to topple the Lao government in what they described as a dramatic cloak-and-dagger plot thwarted by an undercover agent posing as an arms dealer.

"These defendants had developed an audacious plan to overthrow the government of Laos, and were seeking to arm themselves with automatic rifles, rockets and surface-to-air missiles," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein said.

Most prominent among those charged is Vang Pao, 77, a resident of southern California and ethnic Hmong.

A general in the Royal Lao Army before the Communists came to power in 1975, he led a U.S. Central Intelligence Agency-trained mercenary army during the war in Indochina.

The Lao government was delighted by the arrests.

"This is the great news that Laos has waited for so long," Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanhthalansy told Reuters in Bangkok on the sidelines of a bilateral meeting.

"We hope the United States will prosecute them strictly under the Patriot Act and punish the violators of the law severely."

The arrests should also improve ties with Thailand, which Vientiane suspects of turning a blind eye to militants working from its territory, Yong said.

"I am sure that such vigorous investigation will lead to the uprooting of the network of the villains who have caused the most difficulty in bilateral relations between the Lao and Thai governments," he said.

"LIKE A MOVIE SCRIPT"

Vang Pao remains influential among the more than 100,000 Hmong in the United States: in April a Wisconsin school district voted to rename a school after him.

Many of those arrested lived in and around Fresno in central California, home to a large Hmong population.

A special agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives posed as an arms dealer who worked through Harrison Jack, 60, a retired U.S. officer who served a combat tour in Southeast Asia. Jack was charged for his role.

The U.S. Justice Department said more than 200 federal agents conducted pre-dawn raids across California.

"This investigation read like a movie script, but turned out to be reality," acting ATF director Michael Sullivan said in a statement.