New Delhi [India], March 19 (ANI): American nationwide Matthew Aaron Van Dyke has emerged as the important thing determine in an ongoing investigation by the Nationwide Investigation Company (NIA) into an alleged worldwide community concerned in coaching rebel teams and smuggling drones into Myanmar.
Van Dyke, a self-described fight specialist and founding father of the safety agency Sons of Liberty Worldwide (SOLI), was arrested at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Worldwide Airport on March 13, round 9 pm, as a part of a coordinated crackdown.
He was detained together with six Ukrainian nationals — Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim and Kaminskyi Viktor — who at the moment are in NIA custody until March 27 following orders of a particular Delhi courtroom.
As per intelligence sources, Van Dyke operated as a freelancer, actively advertising his fight experience by way of social media platforms equivalent to X, YouTube and a private web site to safe assignments.
Investigators have sought detailed knowledge from these platforms to trace his actions and operational hyperlinks.
The NIA’s FIR alleges that Van Dyke and his workforce entered India on vacationer visas on separate dates, flew to Guwahati, after which travelled to Mizoram with no necessary Restricted Space Allow (RAP) or Protected Space Allow (PAP), earlier than illegally crossing into Myanmar.
On the coronary heart of the probe are allegations that Van Dyke’s community performed ‘pre-scheduled coaching’ for Myanmar-based ethnic armed teams, specializing in superior uneven warfare methods, together with drone operations, drone meeting and digital jamming programs.
The company has informed the courtroom that the accused admitted to conducting such coaching periods on a number of events.
Investigators additional allege that the group smuggled ‘enormous consignments of drones’ originating from Europe into Myanmar through India to reinforce the operational capabilities of those armed teams. These militias, the NIA claims, are identified to help rebel outfits lively inside India.
The anti-terror company has additionally knowledgeable the courtroom that the accused had been involved with unidentified armed operatives carrying AK-47 rifles and had abetted terrorist and unlawful actions. It additional alleged that the community offered weapons, coaching and tactical help to proscribed Indian rebel organisations.
Van Dyke’s background, as revealed by way of his social media footprint, factors to an extended and extremely publicised profession as a mercenary. He reportedly fought in conflicts throughout Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq, together with the 2011 Libyan Civil Battle in opposition to Muammar Gaddafi, the place he was held as a prisoner of struggle for over 5 months earlier than returning to fight. He later established SOLI, described as a navy contracting agency providing coaching and advisory providers in world battle zones, together with Iraq, Syria and Ukraine.
His on-line presence additionally exhibits appearances in at the very least two movies — one documenting his function in Libya and one other selling his safety enterprise.
Investigators, sources mentioned, imagine the group had been making repeated journeys to Myanmar since 2024. Eight extra Ukrainian nationals, half of a bigger group of 14 who allegedly entered Myanmar by way of Mizoram, are at the moment untraceable, and it stays unclear whether or not they’re nonetheless in Myanmar or have exited through India.
NIA groups had been monitoring the suspects within the Northeast for a number of months earlier than the arrests, which had been carried out at a number of airports, together with Delhi, Lucknow and Kolkata.
In an official assertion, the NIA, nonetheless, declined to reveal additional particulars, stating that the case is at an preliminary stage and extra info might be shared at an applicable time.
‘It’s to tell that because the case is in preliminary stage of investigation, we won’t be able to share the small print with you at this stage. The identical might be shared at an applicable time. Your cooperation at this juncture is solicited,’ an NIA Spokesperson has mentioned. (ANI)
