A British man in custody here for allegedly trying to smuggle helicopters to Iran claims federal agents turned the single sale of one aircraft into a major crime, his attorney said Thursday. Colin Breeze, 33, of Manchester, England, is charged with violating U.S. export laws by trying to secretly deliver 10 military-type Sikorsky helicopters to Iran with the help of that nation's ambassador to Spain. Customs officials also said a suspect in the case is a man said to be a member of the Spanish royal family. In Spain, the Iranian Embassy said Thursday it had no information on the case, and that Ambassador Hadi Soleimanpour was unavailable for comment. Henry M. Bugay, a public defender representing Breeze here, Thursday blamed the U.S. Customs Service for trying to turn the small-time broker into an international smuggler. ``Breeze is a fixed-wing aircraft broker who works out of his home in Manchester,'' with no expertise in helicopter sales, Bugay said. Bugay said the case began when Breeze agreed to sell one helicopter ``for tourist, sight-seeing purposes'' to Juan Perez de Guzman, whom he identified as a nephew of Spain's King Juan Carlos II. Perez de Guzman, ``said to be a relative of the King of Spain, is a major suspect in the case,'' confirmed Patrick O'Brien, head of Customs here. However a spokesman for the royal household in Madrid told The Associated Press they have no record of Perez de Guzman, and O'Brien said Customs had not established if the man was indeed a relative of the king. Bugay said that when Breeze unknowingly approached a confidential informant for the Customs service about the helicopter, the informant pushed him to expand the deal, eventually raising it to 10 helicopters with Perez de Guzman's cooperation. Breeze ``was led down the garden path,'' said Bugay. ``The original deal was concerning one single helicopter ... the whole case, we believe, borders on entrapment.'' The attorney refused to say whether Breeze knew Iran was the eventual buyer of the helicopters, but acknowledged his client understood the deal was ``bordering on a gray area.'' Customs accuses Breeze of knowingly arranging the sale of the 10 Sikorsky helicopters to a European company secretly owned by Iran, and O'Brien said investigators have tapes of many conversations about the deal. The helicopters were on sale in Jordan for $6.8 million, but the final price for the sale and delivery to Iran was to be $30 million, Customs said. Soleimanpour was to take a cut of the deal, although at the last minute he delayed the sale by trying to raise his percentage, said O'Brien. O'Brien said although Breeze was unaware of it, Customs had discovered that the deal was falling through because someone else had made a higher bid. They arrested Breeze at the Fort Lauderdale airport Tuesday because they feared he would not return to the United States when he discovered the deal was off. Breeze is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center south of Miami, and goes before a magistrate Friday for a full bond hearing.
