Biography
Haniffa Bin Osman was a Singaporean arms broker who acted as a middleman between weapons suppliers and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. He flew to Baltimore in July 2006 to test-fire machine guns, and on September 26, 2006 travelled to Guam to inspect machine guns, sniper rifles, ammunition and two surface-to-air missiles intended for the Tamil Tigers, discussing the commission he stood to earn on the sale; he wired a $752,000 down payment for the weapons. The buyers were undercover federal agents. He pleaded guilty on April 5, 2007 to conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization and to money laundering, and was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. He was not a member of the LTTE and held no military rank: the retired Indonesian Marine Corps general in the same case was his co-defendant Erick Wotulo, who was sentenced to 30 months and deportation.