Four men arrested for their involvement in a Tamil Tigers support network that operated in the United States and Canada pleaded guilty to terrorism charges yesterday (June 09).

Karunakaran Kandasamy, Pratheepan Thavaraja, Murugesu Vinayagamoorthy and Vijayshanthar Patpanathan face maximum sentences of 15 to 20 years after entering their pleas in a Brooklyn courtroom.

Mr. Kandasamy was the leader of the U. S. branch of the Tamil Tigers, defeated by Sri Lankan government forces last month following more than 25 years of

civil war, the U. S. Justice Department said.

Mr. Thavaraja was a senior Tamil Tigers procurement agent who had relied on supporters in the United States and Canada "to assist him in researching and obtaining military technology," according to the indictment.

He and Mr. Vinayagamoorthy had also allegedly tried to bribe U. S. officials to remove the Tigers, also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE, from Washington’s list of outlawed terrorist groups.

During the investigation, Mr. Patpanathan told an undercover agent how the Tamil Tigers raised millions in North America. He said the money was funnelled through a group called the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization(TRO).

"He said that, in total, more money is raised in Canada, but that the LTTE relies more on donors in the United States for time-sensitive financing needs," the indictment read.

In a press release yesterday, the Department of Justice recognized the RCMP for its assistance and said the Tamil Tigers operated branches in a dozen countries, including Canada.

"The LTTE relies on sympathetic Tamil expatriates residing in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France and several other countries to raise and launder money and smuggle arms, explosives, equipment and technology into LTTE controlled territory."

Canada has long been a key support base for the Tamil Tigers. The RCMP began investigating LTTE fund-raising in 2002, and in 2006 shut down what it called the largest Tiger front in Canada, the World Tamil Movement.

That same year, the Mounties began a joint Canada-U. S. undercover investigation called Project O-Needle— named after the anti-aircraft missiles the suspects were attempting to buy.

The probe resulted in the arrests of several Canadians and the men who pleaded guilty yesterday. So far, all those arrested have pleaded guilty, except three of the Canadians, who have been ordered extradited to the United States to stand trial but are appealing.

Providing material support to the Tigers is a violation of Canadian and U. S. anti-terror-ism laws. (National Post)