O'Hare worker caught in federal sting gets 2 years

[July 10, 2008]  CHICAGO (AP) -- It might have looked like easy money to O'Hare International Airport worker Riad Skaff: $26,500 to help smuggle night-vision goggles, rifle scopes and cash aboard Paris-bound jets.

But the payment was part of a federal sting operation that netted Skaff, 69, a two-year prison sentence handed down Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Joan B. Gottschall.

The judge brushed aside the claim by defense attorney Robert G. Clarke that Skaff was an unsophisticated laborer who didn't belong in the same category with big-time international arms smugglers.

"I don't see this offense as trivial -- I see this as a very serious offense," the judge said. She dismissed the claim that Skaff was merely trying to make money and did not intend to jeopardize national security by agreeing to help smuggle military scopes and goggles.

Skaff is a naturalized American citizen born in Lebanon. He formerly was employed by a company that services Air France jetliners.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested him in January 2007.

Federal prosecutors said he pocketed a total of $26,500 from an undercover ICE agent in return for agreeing to smuggle night-vision scopes, goggles, a cell phone jammer and $396,000 in cash, aboard three outbound planes.

Skaff pleaded guilty to all nine counts in the indictment.

His attorney lobbied for a sentence of probation with no prison time, saying that Skaff was in "delicate health and he is of very old age." He said his client's ailments include diabetes, kidney disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and swelling of the legs and feet.

The judge said she might have given Skaff a stiffer sentence if not for his health woes.

[Associated Press; By MIKE ROBINSON]

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