Air shipper faces prison after hazmat conviction

A 62-year-old Bay Area man is facing the prospect of years in a federal prison after being convicted of endangering the safety of an aircraft by trying to ship hazardous materials on international flights.

Federal prosecutors say after a six-day trial jurors on Wednesday found Hasan Ibrahim guilty of nine counts of attempting to place destructive substances on an aircraft, as well as other related charges.

Ibrahim, who is from Los Gatos, operated a business called MechChem Corp., a company that for more than 10 years shipped hazardous materials.

Prosecutors told the jury that Ibrahim had intended to place nine different types of hazardous materials on a Lufthansa passenger airplane bound for Frankfurt, Germany.

The chemicals were so dangerous that some were forbidden on passenger planes, while two of the chemicals were not allowed on any type of aircraft.

Besides finding him guilty on the hazardous material charges, jurors also found Ibrahim guilty of  related charges of failing to properly label the packages containing the chemicals that he was shipping and failing to complete proper shipping papers, as required by federal law.

Ibrahim is due to be sentenced in October. When he is, prosecutors say he’s facing a possible maximum penalty of 20 years on each of the destructive substance convictions.

Last modified July 9, 2013 12:15 am

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