109.07.02Reserve Tracks Acheron Federation Aid to Brothers of Freedom

FOR GENERAL RELEASE

Reserve Statement Regarding Acheron Federation Convoy Action on 1 July 109

FM: CAPT Svetlana Scarlet, Reserve Chief of Diplomatic Staff

On 29 June, CAPT Zevrik, Reserve Chief of Naval Intelligence, received a communique from Caldari Naval Intelligence indicating that they had received intelligence from corporate assets indicating the high probability that a shipment of goods from the Gallente Federation, destined for the Brothers of Freedom, would be arriving in the Kisogo system on 1 July 109. Naval Intelligence requested the assistance of the Reserve in identifying any suspicious shipments from the Federation, possibly in vessels flagged to one of the Gallente paramilitaries. Naval Intelligence instructed CAPT Zevrik that the mandate was strictly to monitor and report -- interdiction and/or elimination was not authorized at the time.

Reserve forces set up a detection perimeter around the Kisogo system in an attempt to detect any suspicious traffic as early as possible and get scanning vessels in range to determine the contents of any transport vessels. At 2000 hours, Reserve pilots detected a convoy of vessels belonging to the Acheron Federation entering Caldari space and heading towards the Kisogo system. Scans of the vessels indicated food and medical supplies, but also electronics parts, guidance systems, and other cargo with signatures suspiciously similar to items used in the manufacture of weapons and improvised explosives captured by corporate security forces in the wake of riots started by the Brothers of Freedom. Documentation of these findings has been forwarded to the Caldari Navy and will be released to the public after thorough review by Reserve Intelligence staff.

These vessels docked in the Kisogo transit station operated by the State War Academy, and Reserve intelligence relayed our findings to the Navy shortly thereafter. In the last hour, the Reserve has received information from the Naval Intelligence regarding what happened to the cargo once it arrived at the SWA station.

Shortly after the convoy docked, the cargo was unloaded and began to be processed through Customs as usual for any cargo. The Caldari Customs official on duty was replaced by his supervisor shortly after beginning the sweep. Only a few hours ago, Tribunal intelligence assets discovered a numbered account with the Garoun Investment Bank linked to this supervisor; a number of deposits to that account from holding corporations, now believed to be shell companies for foreign intelligence assets, have been made in that account for the last year, totaling over a million ISK. This supervisor has been arrested by Naval MPs and is currently being interrogated by Naval Intelligence. According to the customs official taken off assignment by the supervisor, prior to his relief he recorded a number of lot numbers which have proven similar to those found for items seized in corporate security raids of Brothers of Freedom safehouses.

Unfortunately, this supervisor approved the transfer of cargo prior to his arrest, which was moved to a number of cargo vessels belonging to various corporations. These ships left the station some two hours later, destined for a number of cities in the Kisogo system. Shortly thereafter, the Navy received reports that the flight plans and transponder codes of these ships had been forged and scrambled to intercept, but was unable to apprehend them before they disappeared from the Kisogo traffic control net. These ships were found later, abandoned and stripped of cargo, in various places around the Kisogo system, mostly in abandoned urban areas and wilderness areas near known Brothers of Freedom bases of operation.

It seems clear now that the Acheron Federation, and perhaps other Gallente groups, are aiding the Brothers of Freedom -- if they did not instigate the riots that now threaten millions of Caldari lives, they are fueling them.