The State - News from April 25, 1986

U.S. Department of Commerce agents seized five crates containing $233,000 worth of electronic equipment that could have been used by the Soviet Union for military purposes, a spokesman said. Officials said special agents intercepted the equipment in Burlingame, south of San Francisco, to prevent its export to France and possible diversion to the Soviet Union, where the technology is needed to modernize missiles and military radar. Commerce Department officials denied all U.S. trading privileges to the French importers, La Physique Applique Industrie and Les Accessories Scientifiques. The department declined to identify the California company that produces the high-technology goods, but said the firm assisted investigators and had no knowledge of the French companies’ plans to sell the equipment to the Soviet Union.