Manhattan defense attorney Robert Simels is on trial in connection with alleged criminal actions taken by him in the course his defense of Guyanese drug lord Roger Khan. These charges included alleged witness tampering and alleged possession of illegal eavesdropping equipment. Simels has claimed that the eavesdropping equipment came from Guyana and was owned by his client Roger Khan. This claim has the Guyanese government fussing and fuming like a convention of preachers caught caught in a go-go joint, with the Guyanese police even going so far as to trot out and display interception equipment that the government claims it seized from Khan.

Why doth the Guyanese government protest so much? Well it appears that the equipment — a laptop computer and a CSM 7806 (pictured on the right) came from a Fort Lauderdale store called the Spy Shop and were exported to Guyana. Export geeks will immediately realize that such equipment is classified as ECCN 5A980. Under the licensing policy set forth for these devices in section 742.13 of the Export Administration Regulations licenses to someone other than a telecom company are subject to a general policy of denial. Although section 742.13 doesn’t say this, one has to assume that an export to a foreign government (other than an AT country) or its law enforcement agencies would also be approved notwithstanding a general policy of denial.

If the cellphone eavesdropping device was legally exported and wound up in Khan’s hands, it means he got it from either one of Guyana’s (now-privatized) telecom companies or, more likely, from the Guyanese government. If from the Guyanese government, that means the government had connections to Khan’s cocaine business. That would, of course, be bad. Very bad. And that might explain why the Guyanese are claiming that they don’t know where Simel’s CSM 7806 came from, but that it didn’t come from them because they not only didn’t give the device to Khan but also they seized the stuff from him when they found him with it.

So who do you believe? Oh, and just to help you make your decision, the head of the company that owns the Spy Shop that sold the equipment testified in the Simel trial that the equipment was sold to the Government of Guyana.

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