NJ Woman Charged With Illegally Sending Airplane Part To UAE: Feds

ROCKAWAY, NJ — A Morris County woman faces federal smuggling and exportation charges for illegally shipping an airplane component overseas without proper authorization, said officials.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey said 24-year-old Tama Jamhour of Rockaway and 43-year-old Fadi Nammas of Virginia were arrested Tuesday, after they conspired to send an Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU) to an address in the United Arab Emirates.

These components supply information on an aircraft's airspeed, position, and altitude to the pilot's flight and navigation and other onboard systems. They are used on both civilian and military aircraft.

Nammas and Jamhour did not obtain the right license or authorization to ship the device, which "was controlled for missile technology and anti-terrorism reasons," U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said on Tuesday.

Officials said that from Nov. 2023 through March 2024, Nammas and Jamhour worked under the guise of an aircraft service and parts provider in Bergen County, called Star Aero. The pair obtained an ADIRU from an aviation company, and had it shipped to a Garfield address, officials said.

When Nammas and Jamhour purchased the ADIRU, officials said they did not disclose their intention to send it to the UAE. Instead, they pretended it was for their company's stock purposes, and signed documents indicating Star Aero "understood and would comply with United States export laws," Sellinger's office said.

The device was purchased on March 13, and Nammas arranged for pickup from the aviation company, officials aid.

"Once the defendants received the ADIRU, they repackaged it with false documentation that undervalued and falsely described the item and attempted to ship it to the UAE," officials said.

According to court records, Jamhour mailed the device to an address in Dubai sometime around March 18, sending it from a shipping company in Garfield.

The shipping documentation falsely claimed that the ADIRU was a braking/steering device valued at $850, when the defendants had wired $50,000 from Star Aero to a company in Vermont to pay for the component, records show.

About two weeks earlier, Star Aero had received a $65,000 deposit from UAE-based Global Aero Services FZA, officials said.

Homeland Security Investigations seized the package on March 18, and Jamhour called the shipping company three times to ask about the package between March 19 and March 25, according to court documents. She also filed a lost shipment claim with the company, and the modified invoice increased the value of the package to $85,000, officials charged.

Both Jamhour and Nammas have been charged with one count of conspiracy to export and smuggle goods from the United States, one count of unlawfully exporting goods from the United States without having first obtained the required license or authorization, and one count of smuggling goods from the United States.